isaviolinist

I weigh my food and measure it. I got a scale that was inexpensive at target awhile back and I love it. It comes with a bowl that fits over it if you're measuring something like cheese (or other solid foods). The bowl protects the unit from getting dirty. But then you can flip the bowl right side up and use it to measure things like rice or quinoa or flour. Its great. I use it all the time to measure my food.

Nice! That sounds so great! I'm trying to remind myself when I get the head cravings, that food will still be around tomorrow and the day after and the day after. Its unnecessary for me to eat EVERYTHING that I'm craving in one day (which is how I used to feel....if I didn't get what I was craving RIGHT THEN, I used to get very panicky). So far its working - the emotional, head stuff is the trickiest part about the band, I think. And I totally agree with the comment about drinking water. Often hunger pangs are actually thirst pangs. I've been making an effort in the past few days to drink at least 70 oz of water/tea and its been helping! Good luck and stick around LBT!

Hm...was it a soft tortilla? I can't eat really doughy, flour tortillas (or anything doughy really). I found some low carb, whole wheat ones that I can eat, but theyre super thin and not doughy. When I'm stuck I can usually feel it within minutes. Doesn't usually happen an hour later, but we're all different. But my tummy does get really distended when I'm stuck or I overeat. I sip Water sometimes to help pass it through (doesn't always work), but don't gulp as its likely to just come right back up (literally). I've heard papaya enzyme helps too, but I've never tried it. If I'm wearing a tight bra or pants with a tight waist band I undo them as sometimes that helps it go down. I also walk around, and sometime that helps. If it doesn't help it go down, it at least relieves some of the discomfort.

Hey! Just saw this post! Just wanted to say hi I don't live in Korea but I'm engaged to a Korean. Last time I was in Korea, not only did I get stared at for being white and being a white girl dating a Korean, but I obviously got stared at for being roughly the size of 10 Korean women put together. I love my future in-laws, but my fiancee's mother is constantly asking if we've lost weight (she's taking us to Hawaii in December and I'm praying she sees a difference...the last I saw her was in May and I probably dropped 20 pounds since then, and am hoping to let go of 20 more before the end of December). I was telling AlienBandit, we met my fiance's aunt for lunch and she gave me a gift certificate to Shinsegae, but when she handed it to me, I could see in her eyes that she was thinking "Here you go. I don't know what the hell you can buy there". It was a fun trip, but depressing at the same time. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing my fiancees family at our wedding and wowing them with my skinniness lol. I know it won't be skinny by Korean standards (I'll never be a size 1 or 2) but it will be healthy! Anyhow, welcome to LBT! this is a great resource! I hope you're starting to feel better from your surgery! Walking around really helped me - I tried to walk as much as possible. Kept my muscles from getting tight and helped some of the gas and other pains. I'm following your blog - can't wait to see your progress!

I don't usually eat out for lunch, just because I like to know what is in my food. But if I have to, I try to go to a place like Panera, Cosi or some other place that has salads or other healthy options and that ALSO has nutrition facts that I can look at. I don't eat meat, so there aren't a lot of options at a place like subway (I won't eat the tuna because it is just LOADED with mayo...its a little mayo and minimal tuna) but if you do eat chicken I think they have grilled chicken and things like that. Plus you can get the nutrition facts there and you can order your sandwich/salad the way you want it. If there is a whole foods near you, there is always good to-go options there that are relatively healthy.

Um, hm. I can completely understand not wanting to eat ice cream because its a trigger food or you're just not wanting to take the risk, but the above comment is ridiculous.

I agree with what mostly everyone has said. As far as physical hunger, sometimes I forget to eat until dinner time (but I try not to, especially because we work out everyday and its SO not good to workout without having eaten something...and you can't workout as hard, also if you have an empty stomach). But the head hunger and old habits are still a struggle for me. Usually at night is when its the worst (I was always a late night binger). I almost get panicked when I realize I can't eat anything else for the day (like when I've expended my calories for the day). However, I would imagine that if someone had told me that I had to stop eating at a certain number of calories everyday (even if it was 2500 calories) before I got the band I would have FREAKED out. So some of my head issues are getting better (since I don't completely lose it when I don't have any calories left) but I still am addicted to food and its hard breaking away from the emotional part of an addiction. Especially a food addiction because its not like we can abstain from eating food. When I do get panicky, I try to remind myself that I'll be able to eat again tomorrow, so instead of being sad that I can't eat anymore today, I can understand that I'll be able to eat tomorrow and the next day and the next day, etc.

Thanks! I know relatively speaking its a short distance and we weren't running like 8mph or something, but it still felt good!!

I think most of the questions you asked have been answered, but I just wanted to say that I know how you feel with all of your concerns!! 4 days after my surgery I drank some broth a little too fast and I had a feeling like the broth was sitting above my band (although I don't think it was...I was just overly nervous because everything was new) and I called my doctor because I was sure I had stretched my pouch and my band had slipped. Anyways, I didn't stretch my pouch or damage my band, of course. But I definitely know what you're going through. Everything is so nice, so it will take a little bit of adjusting to get to know your band and to relearn how your body works with the new tool. Stick around LBT! Its a great resource!

Has anyone started a Thanksgiving Challenge? If not, would anyone want to? I don't really know how to format a spreadsheet. I am at 224 today and am aiming for 214 by Thanksgiving, which is about 4 weeks from now.

Firstly, its my opinion that if you eat in moderation, nothing is horribly bad for you. There are things that are worse than others, but if you eat them in moderation, its not a huge deal. If you're eating 1500 calories worth of chicken pot pie everyday, then yes, it will be really bad for you. Can you post your recipe? I'm really good at breaking down recipes and minimizing the calories (I love to cook, so maximum taste with minimum calories is my hobby :thumbup:). One suggestion off the top of my head is get a non stick cooking spray to cook the onions (you can get an olive oil one). You'd be surprised how little oil you really need to cook. I'm making cioppino tonite and I just sauteed 4 chopped shallots, 4 garlic cloves, one huge chopped onion, and a really big fennel bulb (chopped) with less than a tablespoon of olive oil. It was like 2 pounds of veggies lol. It can be done! Post the recipe and maybe I can help you with it.

I remember the first couple of days being tricky (I had a 2 week preop diet that got extended to a 3 week preop diet because my surgery was postponed). I had a liquid diet only (no veggies or anything). For the first week, I pretty much stayed in my apartment as I didn't even want to see food and I didn't really want to see people eating food. That was helpful, actually. I think it was day 5 that I had to leave for work, and by that time I had pretty much become acclamated to being on the liquids. The food smells outside were definitely beckoning to me, but it was easier to ignore them. I guess the number one thing that motivated me during the preop diet (aside from being deathly afraid of having any complications during surgery) was the rapid weightloss. I ended up losing 20 pounds on the preop diet and the excitement that it generated inside of me was enough to keep me on track. Try to think about that and I bet it will help you get through it!:thumbup:

I'm a believer in satisfying cravings. I initially lost 80 pounds with my band and then gained 50 back because I was depriving myself of everything that I was craving. And I went nuts with the ice cream and candy. So I try to satisfy my cravings. The nice thing is that now (usually) instead of eating half a cake, I can just have a small piece and feel satisfied with it.

I love weight watchers ice cream! I get the ice cream sandwiches and the ice cream cones (both have 140 calories) and the Cookies and cream ice cream bars (130 calories). I love love love them. So yummy!

Welcome to LBT! I love challenges too - glad you're here :thumbup: And yes, meeting goals is such a great way to end the year! Just so everyone has them, here are the links for Thanksgiving Challenge: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Am5-D5xrt3dKdDJMUVVabzBnMG1qY3JBeWxScGItM0E&hl=en&authkey=CMjw7tUJ And New Year Challenge: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Am5-D5xrt3dKdC1DaDJEY3IwaXpFUC1aSzhkdkRScmc&hl=en&authkey=CMr0g1w

No problem I'm so glad you joined!!

Yay! I'm so happy that everyone is using the spreadsheet I love seeing tons of names on there and I love seeing all the pounds we've lost altogether. Halloween was okay for me! I had started a modified version of the plateau buster diet on Saturday (basically almost no carb - which I never do - and super high Protein while still getting in my 800-900 calories) so candy was out of the question! And I didn't have any Instead I did an hour of cross training and took a long walk. It paid off as I'm down 1.6 pounds in the last two days! So this Halloween was a good one for me lol.:thumbup:

Do you belong to a gym or fitness center that has people who help with things other than personal training (i.e. food logs, weigh-ins etc)? Every six weeks at our place, we do a body composition and part of it is our practitioner measures us. I've measured myself before but I'm not entirely sure if I was being very accurate. If you have someone else do it, they can measure you in the same place every time. If you do it yourself, try to just write down where you measured yourself somehow so you can measure in the same place again (that's hard to do though lol). I would say just do your best. I measured myself by myself for awhile and while it may not have been completely accurate, I could definitely get a rough idea of where the inches were coming off. Don't pull the tape too tight - it should just fit around whatever part youre measuring, but not be cinching it.

I was having some of these issues for quite awhile (probably 8 months myself). Ive gotten back on track, as I had also been eating foods that slipped right through. I moved, and so I made an appointment with a surgeon closer to where I now live (my original surgeon referred me). Jack - after the 8 months, when you had the adjustment, had you done any damage to your band or stomach? I'm deathly afraid that my band has slipped or I have stretched my pouch. Just praying that I havent.

I didn't fall off the horse for 2 years, but I started giving up (or just getting lazy, actually) sometime around Thanksgiving last year and started back up this past September. Part of me is happy for the experience of regaining 50 pounds because I think I have more insight into myself and my eating behaviors. I also know that I never want to regain that weight again as I just felt so terrible about myself and I hated that feeling of failure so badly. I feel so great now that I got back into the gym, back on this site, and back to food logging. But the hardest part of everything was taking the first step to get back into the gym, logging back in, etc. Now that I'm in a routine, its not as hard. I don't love exercising but I know that and I just tell myself I need to do it anyways - we don't always love the things that we have to do, but we just have to do them anyways. In the past 8ish weeks I've relost 36 of the 50 pounds I gained and haven't felt better. You can do it! Go back to the doc, I'm sure he's seen this before. You might get a reprimand, but maybe it would be good to hear. And start tomorrow with revamping your eating and go to the gym, even if its just for 20 minutes. Joining a gym and getting a personal trainer to help keep me accountable has been really helpful. Its hard to not show up when someone is waiting for you :wink2: Whatever you do, don't say, "ill do it tomorrow"! You'll never do it :smile2:

I'm much colder than I have ever been but I just assumed that it was due to weight loss. I have hypothyroidism and haven't had blood work in awhile to see if the synthroid is doing what it should be, so I'm planning to do that over the holidays. I'm not complaining though - I love not being hot all the time.

I just posted a great recipe for pumpkin pie cupcakes on my blog: Violinist With A Band: Happy Halloween! And Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes! I love these cupcakes, and they are relatively low calories (under 100 calories per cupcake). A great holiday dessert! I don't eat meat (well I eat seafood, but not poultry, pork, red meat etc) so I can't offer too much info about the turkey. Just take VERY small bites and chew chew chew! And I guess try not to get wrapped up in everyone around you stuffing their faces. Just eat until you feel satisfied and then stop.

Happy Halloween!! :wink2: I'm going to stay away from the candy today. Instead, I did my 1 hour cross training class and then went for a 2.3 mile walk. Now headed to the supermarket to grab ingredients for a nutritious high-protein dinner (which doesn't involved reeses peanut butter cups - the devil's candy :smile2: I can't eat just one). This is one of my favorite times of the year, and I'm going to enjoy the weather and the beautiful foliage and not make it about food, for once!!! Good luck everyone and stay warm trick or treating tonite!!

Haha thanks :laugh: I think we all can relate to that sad feeling when we see a dress in the window that we LOVE but can only dream about wearing. Shopping has always been a depressing event for me and I can't wait to partake in some retail therapy :laugh: I really want to feel like "all the other girls" that love to shop. I can't wait to go into the burberry outlet and buy something OTHER than a scarf And actually, my biggest splurge will be for my wedding gown. I'm not going to skimp at all. I have been dreaming about a dress from Amsale (its called Maribel) and I can't wait to visit the Flagship store in NY and slip right into one of those sample sizes :smile2: I will probably take 2 days and go to NY with my mom and sister and future sister in law and go to Amsale, Vera Wang, Priscilla of Boston, maybe Kleinfelds and the Bergdorf Bridal salon and I cant wait for it to be an amazing experience that all brides dream of. I have been dreading wedding gown shopping for years, but not anymore!! I can't wait :mad:

I take synthroid. I take it in the morning before I eat (at least 30 minutes). I'm bad at consistently taking vitamins, but when I take them, I take them at night so nothing conflicts. I haven't gotten blood work for my synthroid levels anytime lately, so I'm not sure if what I'm doing is effective. I should probably have some blood work done soon.