Jamie!

It kind of makes the drink better. I usually get a Chai Tea Latte with Soy Milk and the soy milk at Starbucks uses is vanilla flavored. I only add the vanilla flavored protein to the drink but I guess it would be just the same with the unflavored protein. I usually do it for breakfast and that does hold me over until lunch.

no I add it when I get to work. I generally always carry around with me a couple scoops of Protein to add to random things. So at starbucks I'll get an iced chai tea latte and take out my vanilla flavored protein and I"ll personally add it in. If you ask them for light ice it easier to mix you have a little bit more room to work with...

I'm a huge fan of the Champion Whey Protein Stack. They have tons of flavors my favorite is the Cookies and cream and the tropial sunsrise...each scoop is 26g of protein You can order samples of them at www.vitalady.com the samples are about $2 each so that's not too bad. Does anyone also eat Protein Bars? I've been looking for a good one. I've orders a box of the pure protein one to see if they are any good.

I love starbucks! I recently became a goldmember. I have my gold card with my name on it to prove it! haha If I go before work I get a grande chai tea latte with soy milk but when I get to work I'll add a scoop of vanilla Protein powder to it and that will be my Breakfast. It has like 250 but with the protein scoop now come with a little more than 26g of protein If I go during the day I wont get the chai tea latte because it has to many calories but I'll get a shaken passion fruit iced tea. (I dont drink coffee, so I just get the tea options at starbucks but they are equally as good)

You have to be very careful when adding Protein to hot food/hot drinks etc. Protein powders change texture after 130 degrees. Once it reaches 130 degress it gets mushy and gel like..which is very unpleasant to drink/eat. There has been times I've had to throw away my chai tea because the protein I put in it made it almost like Jello. So you can add it to food and drinks but just make sure its not too hot...

I really like the Champion Pure Protein whey stack its soo good. It has 23 grams of protein per scoop. I get the chocolate one but they have tons of flavors. I've tried most of them. They have a Tropical Sunrise one that taste like orange or a banana and strawberry one. I ordered samples of each flavor on www.vitalady.com to see which one I liked. The samples are only like $2 so its easy to order without comitting to one flavor. But now that I found the one I like I get the big bottles of them. I alternate between the choclate and Cookies and cream.

I have the Realize Band too, and honestly the website is what drew me more to the Realize Band over the Lap Band. But after surgery I'm almost never on the website. It's not difficult to manage its just counter intuitive. Good thing my doctor doesn't require us to do anything with it, I don't think I've signed on since surgery. Maybe you can keep a food journal then just input your food weekly so you don't have to deal with the website on a daily basis.

No matter what I do I can't seem to lose the weight. I was banded on June 30, 2009, I started out at 252 lbs and I am currently 229 lbs which means almost 6 months later I am only 23 lbs down, its just so frustrating. I am currently at 8cc and I have an appointment next week for another fill. I have the Realize Band which means I can go up to 11cc so I'm pretty close to filling it. My doctor says not to worry I'm doing well and it will pick up soon but I honestly don't think 23lbs in 6 months is good. The worst part of all of this is I live in New York and my family lives in California, I'm going to go visit them in 3 weeks for Christmas, which means I know to expect a lot of people asking me "Didn't you have WEIGHT LOSS surgery 6 months ago?" I wanted to be at least 50lbs down in 6 months before I went home so I can at least look different. I know 23 lbs is good and I'm down a dress size but that is definitely not what I was expecting. Is anyone else experiencing such a slow weight loss process or am I just doing something extremely wrong? Any tips would be a great help!

I have really long hair and I had hair coming out by the hand fulls. After each shower I had to through away a lot of hair from the tub. It only lasted about 2 month or so. I told my doctor and she said to make sure I eat enough protien. So I started drinking a Protein shake every morning and its really helped. My hair doesn't fall out as much any more. I also starting using a leave-in conditioner with protein to get it the extra help it needed. It was scary at first because I thought I was going to get bald but my doctor said it happens to everyone and it doesn't last long. So my advice is eat more protien and get a protien rich leave-in conditioner, I recommend BioSilk its amazing.

Thanks everyone, this is all great advice. I think its true that sometimes I think my doctor tells me things I want to hear so I don't get depressed about not losing the weight. 23lbs in 6months is not good at all and I need to own up to it and from now on I'm going to be trying my best and watching what I eat and going to the gym. To the person, that was talking about working out but not really working out, I'm guilty of that. I usually do my Wii Fitt at home and although I sweat its never nearly as much as if I would have gone to the gym. I know I am guilty of as soon as I was able to eat solid foods I went right back to the type of food that I was eating before just not in the great amount I was. But I recently starting cutting out carbs and seriously upping my Protein intake (mostly because I had a lot of hair loss, which can be a completely different thread, haha) 23lbs in 6months isn't what I wanted but I think that is whats making me know realize that getting the lap band was only 10% of my weight loss solution the other 90% is my attitude! Here's to my (2nd) new beginning!

Thanks everyone for the advice! It's real and very helpful! I'm going to start keeping a food journal, so see exactly where I'm going wrong. As far as exercise goes I've only been using my WiiFit, but I think I'm actually going to start going to the gym to get a better more all around work out. I'm meeting with my doctor next week so I will bring up a lot of these issues, she's always been very helpful and keeps telling me not to worry it will happen soon.

I started my pre op diet 5 days ago and I've already lost 7 lbs. Its really starting to slow down now. I have about 10 more days to go. My surgery is June 30th!

I started my liquid diet 4 days ago and I don' think I'm going to make it. I still have 10 days to go but it helps that my roommate and I are having surgery on the same day so there is no solid food in the house to temp us...