honk

Check with your doctor about food progression post op. Mine was as follows: clear liquids one week (broth, and protein shakes), 1 week full liquid (tomato, low fat cream chicken soup), 1 week "mushies" (shredded chicken/tuna, mashed sweet potato, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese), Then moved to solids.

My doctor does not want you to use protein shakes once you are on solids. Since they are liquid they will slip right through and you'll be hungry. I do use Premier Ready to Drink Shakes from Costco; when I am on the go (usually at breakfast).

In regards to sour cream with scrambled eggs I would suggest chive low fat cottage cheese instead. You would be getting the protein from the cottage cheese. I don't know if sour cream really has much food value.

In Sept 2009 I had a mild stroke (blood clot in the brain) at 39. I went to the Lap Band Seminar late 12/09. I went through all the hoops and had a surgery date of 3/10. Two weeks prior to the surgery I got word from the neurologist that they felt the blood clot was not sufficiently disolved so the surgery would have to be postponed. I had already started the pre surgery liquid diet. i was devistated!!!!!!! I had to do another 3 months of Blood Thinner treatment and wait and then be tested for my body's ability to coagulate blood. I finally got clearance in 7/09 and had surgery mid 8/09. So I have a idea how you are felling. Looking at the large picture my surgery may have taken longer to happen; but I was 52 pounds lighter when I'd been at the seminar.

You should feel free to call you doctor's office and speak with the Nurse Practioner that's why they are for. I was told I could resume swimming 2 weeks after the surgery. My mother was in town the week after the surgery and while she went swimming; I used the treadmill. I did ZERO incline and progressively worked my way up from .5 MPH to 2.0. I am not a great walker. I have really short legs so I have to really work hard on treadmills. I prefer to use the elliptical but I thougt that would be a strain on my abdominal muscles as I don't hold on to the handles and swing my arms like I'm running. The upside to belonging to a relatively nice gym is that most have either TV's on each machine or ones on the wall that you can listen to via the excercise machine. Makes walking a lot more interesting.

I told my family once I had been approved. My family has been very supportive. I was laid off last year but maintain a close relationship with some former coworkers. I have not told them yet. I did have to postpone my surgery so it ended up taking longer than normal. I will wait to tell them until I meet them again for lunch (we usually get together once a quarter).

I have moved to solids and am measuring 3 oz of protein. I have also weighed some fruit to know how much I was getting.

Please don't consider this a lecture, more of a statement of fact. I come from a family of addictive personalities. For me and my sisters (though they have never been as over weight as I have) it's food; for my brother who is a recovering alcoholic it was alcohol, pot and smoking. He gave up the alcohol and the pot but can't give up cigarettes. He is the only smoker (well his adult son smokes) in our immediate family (our dad was a smoker). He had a heart attack at like 43 (had to have stints put in); and tried to stop smoking. But it has not taken. He can not stop smoking. So yes I know quitting is horrible and in my brothers case not happening (his wife does not smoke). If you have gone this far please try to stay with it. Can you speak with your PCP about the new perscriptions? Again I am not lecturing. My brother says that in all the NA and AA meetings he attends most people there chain smoke because it is the only thing they left.

Yes, absolutely possible! Presurgery I had a couple weeks where I was plateauing even though I was on a modified liquid diet and doing an hour of cardio a day. I tried on a shirt that had been two small a few weeks earlier and it was now to big at the hips. So even though the scale said I was not loosing pounds I was loosing size. I really need to buy a sewing tape measure so I can do some measurements; as I have been plateauing but my clothes are getting looser.

I had my first fill yesterday. Prior to that when I moved to solids I was very carefully measuring the protein with a digital scale. I did not gain but my loosing was severly diminished. I told the nurse I was irritated that I had hit a plateau and thought I was actually not eating enough. She said everyone plateaus. Also my doctor said in solids that the veggies should only be 1/4 of a cup. When making dinner I realized the sweet potato (which they recommended) was a lot more than that so I have been cutting them in half. As hokey as it seems using a sandwhich plate really helps me eat less. Using a real plate kind of depresses me becuase I feel like I hardly got to eat anything.

Okay so today was my first fill. My band is holds apparently 11 CC's. They had this chart containing three lists of statements; basically needs fills, possible fill/sweet spot, overfilled. Well this was my first fill so I clearly needed one (Ended up getting 4CC). What frustrated me was the Nurse Practitioner said "So you can eat more than a total of 4 oz per meal (total not just protein)." To which I responded "Well Yeah, I haven’t had a fill yet". And "You can't go five hours without being hungry. Again Yes. Perhaps I am being to sensitive but I kind of felt like I was failing. She asked if after I eat the measured out meal if I could still eat. I told her yes but after a few minutes I could convince myself I wasn’t that hungry. She also asked if I was having snacks and I said perhaps once a day I would have a greek yogurt or sugar free pudding. (sometimes have yogurt before going to the gym as lunch and dinner tend to be far apart.) Isn’t that the point of the band. To get fills and have some help with the hunger? I told her that I wondered if I wasn’t getting enough calories; to which she said "We don't count calories.". Well I am at around 800-900 calories a day and doing an hour of cardio. She said plateauing happens but I wonder if my metabolism slows down the less I eat. Grr just needed to vent.

I only bought the sugar free pudding cups because they were on the mushies section of the diet they gave me. I have only been on solids for about a week which is why I still have them. I have started to add in fruit (when I moved to solids). When I moved to solids I was supposed to not have Snacks any more (which I was allowed during the mushie stage). So I though 60 of pudding would be a compromise of having 100 fruit. The solids diet says to have 3 ounces of solid Protein and 1-2 veg/starch (greenbeens, tomato, sweet potato). Sample day Breakfast fruited greek yoghurt with Protein Powder (200 cal) OR 2 egg whites 1/8 cup cottage cheese, 2-3 strawberries (200 Cal) lunch Shredding chicken (made laughing cow cheese really good) small tomato, romain lettuce 200-250 OR Chicken breast with salsa 1/8 cup low fat cheese, half sweet potato dinner Salmon (packaged 4 oz living on the edge) half sweet potato OR Chicken breast, half sweet potato Grapes 250-300 Snack Sugar Free Popsicles While I do have a sedentary job I do an hour of cardio a day; and try to go out after work and walk through stores to move around. Based on my exercise and the calories I'm eating and not having restriction I have not been that worried about the occational pudding snack.

I think the band itself is silicone not sure about the port.

Keep in mind that you are a lot younger than your mother and your skin will retract better. When I was 30 I lost more than a hundred pounds and had no excess skin issues. Exercising specific muscles will not affect excess skin issues.

My surgeon (Lahey Clinic - highly regarded Boston area hospital) does not do fluoroscopy for fills.

My surgeon let me have protein shakes and broth the first week. Starting week two I was allowed to start taking vitamins (multi and calcium).

For the first few days I spent a lot of time in the bathroom it got better within a week. I also started to use benefiber so that I would'nt go too far the other way.

Hi. It's not clear to me where you are located. Being as you mention finishing school at 16 and are measuring weight with Kilo's I'm guessing you are either Canadian/British/Australian. What is the age of majority where you live? Legally an adult. In the US you would not be an adult until 18 and even with a parental approval before that some doctors would have ethical concerns about doing the surgery on a minor. I would look into either your private health insurance or National Health Program and see if their are any rules about doing the surgery on someone of your age. I don't want to sound un sympathetic I have been overweight my entire life. And wish I had done the surgery earlier. If I had I might not have had a minor stroke at 39.

I agree with above posters that CIB is going to be low in Protein. I second the Costco Premier Ready to Drink Protein. Also Vitamin Shoppe has good Whey Isolate Protein Powder and their prices are much better than GNC. As I was loosing weight on my own the doctor let me do my own pre surgery diet (after a failed 500 liquid diet that he put me on). I made the shakes with fat free milk which makes them taste better. Candy is going to spike your blood suger whether your diabetic or not.

I think it will depend on what your income. Health Care deductions have to be a certain percentage of your income; go to the IRS site and look it up. My mother who is on social security can always claim health cost not covered by her insurance. The IRS thinks I make to much money so no write offs for me.

I have moved since the last time I lost a major amount of weight so I don't have many smaller sized clothing. My issue is right now I work remotely so I don't have to dress for work. Most of my pants were knit slide on type so even though I have lost 70 pounds since my first consult I have'nt bought that many clothes. Also since I am contracting I'm not sure what kind of environment I might go to next (either as a contractor or direct employee) so I don't want to invest in the wrong type of clothes (Business vs. Business casual). If I get an "onsite job" I will definately need to buy some stuff. Most of the thrift stores near me don't carry larger sizes.

At my two week post op visit my surgeon said I could have Reg Coffee. I would be careful not to use a straw for ice coffee.

The first seminar I went to there was a $400 program fee. It did not cover any patient care at all. Just an profit above and beyond what they got from the insurnace. I went to another hospital (one with actually a better reputation, but about 15 minutes further away) and did not have to pay a fee.

The down side of dried fruit is you get all the calories but not the satiation of a larger serving. If you were to eat an apricot you would be fuller than if you ate a dried apricot. Think grapes how many of them could you eat versus raisens.

I would go online and try to find a calorie burner calculator that lets you input your weight. The reason for the large range is that normally the more you weight the more calories you burn. Though you need to consider how "active your work out is".