Croatica

Let me tell you what the difference is. People in the States eat a lot of processed foods, already made meals and generally stuff in which food producers can put anything and you would not have any idea what you are eating. Here in Europe, especially Mediterranian, we cook our own food out of fresh groceries, eat a lot of fresh fruit and light meat. However, this did not stop me in having 128 kgs. :biggrin1::biggrin1::biggrin1:

Of course I am not mad with you sweety, we are all in this together. :biggrin1: I increased my intake by 200 cals nows, I am getting more hungry as my first fill draws near. Cant wait to eat something not so liquid. :biggrin1:

This is my before pic. :biggrin1:

Here's a great soup, a bit of a different taste, a bit oriental. Buy a frozen mixture of vegetables made for chinese mixture(should contain carrots, shitake mushrooms, bamboo stalks, basically the stuff you would put in a wok). Put in a pot and also put one peeled onion inside to add extra flavor, then add some meat, preferably turkey necks/chicken wings (about 3/4 of a kilo should suffice for a medium pot. Also add a piece of cabbage(do not cut it since we dont want the leaves to end up in our soup) Fill the pot with Water and cook it on medium fire for one and a half hours. 15 or so minutes before it is done, add some frozen corn to gain sweetness. When the corn cooks, trickle the soup and put the trickled soup in another smaller pot. Then take an egg, separate the white from the yolk, and put the white into the soup(we dont want to use to yolk since it has a lot of cholesterol, but the white has a lot fo proteins). Set the pot with the soup on medium fire and stirr until the egg white cooks. Let it cool a bit and then put it in a blender and blend it in order to make the liquid smooth. Serve with soya sauce. :biggrin1:

Like I said honey, its an individual thing. Not everybody is the same. I can do very well ith only 400-500 cals a day, whilse somebody else faints from it. It really depends on your metabolism, your previous eating habits and your initial weight. :biggrin1:

I drink milk, and a special milk product called kefir. What it exactly is, you can see here ----> http://www.kefir.net/ Also, I eat Soup which is made out of meat and vegetables, but I do not eat the meat out of it. Some protein from the meat also end up in the soup and I also put organically grown soya sauce in it to make up for the Proteins. Its not 65g of protein a day, but vegetarians live with much less and feel fine. :biggrin1:

LoL, just kidding. :biggrin1: My body is in the state of starvation. I am aware of that. But the only thing I am reducing is calorie intake. Nothing else. I take my Vitamins and minerals regularly and drink 3 liters of Water a day. I had a blood test two days ago and I am perfectly healthy. Of course, I am 21 and I was perfectly healthy prior to the operation, normal blood sugar and blood pressure. Actually, my body has a fat storage that could last through an entire nuclear war. Malnutrition happens if there is a deficiency of vitamins or minerals. Like I said before, I have plenty of those since I take supplements and CHOOSE foods RICH in vitamins and minerals but POOR in calorie content. There is no point in me eating ice cream, fatty milk or sweetened juices, since these are not nutritive, but have high calorie content. That stuff is a definite no-no for me and I have given it up completely. I eat low fat yogurt, low fat milk and vegetable/meat Soups instead and freshly squeezed juice out of fruits. Fat in your body is there, standing and waiting to be used. :biggrin1: Well, dont you think its worse when people who have pledged to themselves that they will lose weight eat/drink high calorie stuff after the operation? There is no way I am going through with that operation again. No way I am eating anything with high calorie content. I have been through a lot and I am not screwing this up. :biggrin1: My point is - people should shift to foods that have high nutrient content, like fruit, vegetables and light dairy products and forget about stuff they ate before the operation. I consider myself now alergic to those foods and I can watch others eat kilos of ice cream without even thinking of trying it. Why? Because there is really no point in me eating this, if I can physically consume such a small amount of food. So I make the 400-500 calories worth it. Then again, one must be perfectly healthy in order to do this. I dont feel dizzy, I have a great digestion and I feel like I can jump over an entire building! I also think people should not hide this from others. I told the entire world ''Hey, I am a fat whale and I just got banded and soon I shall be a whale no more!'' and a huge deal of people support me, ask me about my weightloss and how I am doing. This makes the cost of failure bigger; I would have to tell the entire lot of my friends that I cannot stick to my diet! Yeee-ha. :biggrin1:

Well, my doc sorta warned me that the band might diminish the sense for hunger, but that the smell of food would still remain to tease me. But I must say, its just the opposite. My mother made fried chicken the other day for lunch; she fried it in fresh oil. So we all sat down for lunch, I was eating my soup and suddenly I felt this disguisting smell! I used to love fried chicken, but now the smell of it made me almost vomit. It was disguisting! :biggrin1: On another occassion, I was passing by a kebab store(another of my ex meaty favourites :biggrin1: ) and the smell was soooo bad I had to run away. What wrong with me? :biggrin1: Can self-persuasion be that powerfull? :biggrin1:

Awwww, thats great! Congrats. :biggrin1: I lost 12 kilos in 3 weeks, but thats just because I am exercise freak. :biggrin1: And live on 400 calories a day :biggrin1: I have a house at the seaside, so if you wanna come over, please do. We can get stoned(since no alchochol is allowed) :biggrin1:

Cramps in extremities are a result of potassium and magnesium deficiency. Try eating a bananna, or drink some supplimentary minerals. Potassium and magnesium are both electrolytes lost when sweating, so be sure to drink a lot of water and takes extra supplements in the summer to prevent any serious problems. :biggrin1:

I am from Croatia, you know, one of those extremely small postcommunist contries of South East Europe. :biggrin1: Well, I dont just drink milk. I also drink yoghurt and this special type of yoghurt, I dont know if you have it in the States, but its a speciality that comes from Causasian mountains. I dont know the word in English, I think its Kefir. To see what it really is, go here http://www.kefir.net/ But I believe in really depends on the age of the person. I am only 21 and I perfectly healthy(except being a whale :biggrin1: ), but the Protein Drink is really a big issue here. I guess some banded people drank both Protein shakes and other stuff at the same time and this made them gain weight instead of lose. However, I see there are veggies here too, so how dont they get PCM, since they drink only soya milk? Anyways, thats just for the first month or so. Nobody died. :biggrin1:

Dobry' den Eficka! :biggrin1: Are you coming for holiday this year? :biggrin1:

5 ' 7'' and I would be pleased with 143 lbs. :biggrin1:

How the heck should I know? :biggrin1: The nurse told me I cannot swimm in any way which requires for my arms to move in a circular motion. She told me my band was attached to my diaphragm and she told me it would fall off if I strained it too hard, lol. I suspected it is just bunch of bull anyways, so I asked here. You swimm regularly then? All styles? :biggrin1:

Trust me, I seriously think one could do without it. I am not quite sure what they put in that stuff - some of them contain genetically manipulated soya, and I am really a health freak, so there's no way I am drinking that. :biggrin1: But yougurt and milk(low fat) really taste great. The problem with protein shakes is that you are not advised to take them in together with stuff that has any form of carbohydrates(milk has lactose, so if you add milk to make a shake, that is a source of carbohydrates), you would gain weight. One deciliter of low fat milk has around 40 calories and everything your body needs, from vitamins to proteins. I see no point in ingesting additional ones, not even in those two weeks. :biggrin1:

I am fat because I ate too much. Period. :biggrin1:

I strongly advise you not to take protein drinks unless you drink at least 2,5 litres of water a day. Why? Because the protein that cannot be digested is secreted through the kidneys and into the urine. It really harms the kidneys if you dont drink a sufficient amount of water. The only proteins I am intaking are the ones from low fat milk/yoghurt(and trickled soup) and I must say, I feel absolutely fine. There is really no need for arfiticial things. But that's just my opinion.

Greetings from Croatia, a small country in Southeast Europe! :biggrin1: I am 21 years old and got banded at the end of June. Lost 12 kilos in less than 3 weeks. :biggrin1: Did not make a single mistake. Mommy is proud of me. :biggrin1: