TheCurvyMermaid

Ugh... I totally blew it this weekend with a series of out of town guests and special occasions. A dinner out with family members at a Chinese restaurant on Thursday, my BFF's birthday dinner at a fancy steakhouse on Friday with all the trimmings, cocktails and deserts, then dinner out for pizza with out of town guests last night. I tracked about 1500 calories Thursday, 2300 calories on Friday. I behaved on Saturday at about 1300, then about 2600 calories last night. The ONLY thing I'll give myself credit for is tracking everything, even though I knew how far over my calorie goal I was. I've been bouncing up and down, stalled between 260-262 for two weeks, and I really want to bust through my plateau. I did SO WELL all through the week until Thursday. I'm kicking myself for getting out of hand. I need to figure out a better way to handle meals out. I'm climbing back on the wagon today, and trying to do better. I need to get back to my good habits of weighing my food and staying away from junk.

I got myself seriously and painfully stuck tonight, eating a few bites of something I had no business eating: a few tiny corners of pan fried tortillas that my roomies had whipped up, chilaquiles style, and left sitting out on the stove. I nibbled a little bit while I was cooking up my own dinner. I tossed the leftovers to keep myself from eating them, but the damage was already done. I was stuck really hard for a good ten minutes or more before it went down. I'm going to take it as a reminder, but man oh man, that hurt!!!

Hahaha! Bravo, Suzi!

I know this is a little bit off topic, but I just wanted to put this out there... I'm walking with a fantastic team of some of my favorite people, Maleficents Minions , on May 4th to support the Aids Services Foundation of Orange County. It's a great organization that helps men, women, children, and families in Orange County living with HIV, by providing food, transportation, housing, emergency financial assistance, kids and family programs, mental health counseling, support groups and HIV education and prevention services. This is my second year walking in the OC AIDS Walk 5K at Disneyland, it's great excercise, and a great cause. Will you please consider sponsoring me? Every little bit helps! http://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1050518&supId=358071517&extSiteType=1

Are you excercising at all? It's possible that you might be plateaud because the amount of calories you're eating are equal to what your body needs to maintain your current weight. If you up your activity you may not need a fill. It's something worth looking in to, especially if you're worried that a fill might put you at an uncomfortable level.

I'm really sorry to hear about your friend, Lela. Days like that are super hard, and it makes it extra hard to stay on track. Good for you for not giving in on the chai, every little bit helps. I know for me, a little cheat here a little there, and before I know it I've totally fallen off the wagon. Sometimes it's easier if I don't have any cheats at all. I imagine it has to be a little bit like a recovering alcoholic not being able to have drinks in moderation... I'm keeping my band on the DL too. The first time around, I was really public with it, then I crashed and burned. My friends may or may not judge me, but this way I don't feel like people are watching me and waiting for me to slip up. Aside from my housemates and a few close friends, I'm keeping it to myself. I'm having a hard time getting in enough water too, but I'm working on it. I just started tracking my food again yesterday. I got lazy about it and I think that's part of why my weight loss has slowed in the last ten days. I'm trying to stay at around 1200 calories, which I can do just fine as long as I'm tracking, otherwise it's easy to think I'm in a good place for the day, and I'm at 1500.

The nutritionist I got the tip from recommends chia seeds for all her weight loss surgery patients, and has a lapband herself. I try to drink mine every day. You can sprinkle them on your food if you like, but remember they expand the minute they hit liquid, so you only want to sprinkle them lightly if you're having them dry. I prefer to put them in my beverages so that they're already plumped up. The seeds are really tiny, and when they plump up, the seed itself stays the same size, but they get sort of a jelly coating. If you've ever had boba tea, they kind of remind me of tapioca pearls, but they're much softer. If you're really tight in the mornings, you might want to wait until mid day or so. Just play it by ear, but they're really helpful.

You might try using chia seeds. The nutritionist at my band office turned me on to them. You can get them at most health food stores, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, etc.. When you put them in liquid, they plump up into sort of a gel. You can add them to your drinks or smoothies to help you feel full. The texture can be a little odd, but they work really well. I put mine in Crystal Light, and sip on it between meals, and it really helps me keep my hunger at bay. You can do between 1tsp-2Tbsp per day. They have a lot of fiber as well, which is a big plus when you're doing a lot of protein and not a lot of veggies, but you don't want to have too much or you may have... issues.

I have this book, "Eating Well after Weight Loss Surgery," and it has a lot of good recipes. The beef stroganoff, and Tomato soup with Greek yogurt are especially good. Amazon has it on sale right now too. http://www.amazon.co...ht loss surgery

I've been using Jay Robb, and I really like the taste. It comes in several flavors that I know of for sure, and have tried: chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. I like the vanilla the best. I make my vanilla shake up with 1 1/3 scoop, ice, a cup of milk, and a tablespoon of Peanut Butter, then blend well. This is great with a handful of fresh or frozen berries as well (minus the peanut butter of course,) It comes in at about 40g of Protein, and tastes great. Spirutein, and Syntrax Necters are pretty good too. I got the Cookies and Cream Syntrax, and it's got a pretty good flavor, especially if you like malts. I've found these at health food stores and Whole Foods. You can also order online from Amazon. FWIW, my nutritionist said not to eat more than 40g of protein per meal, because that's the maximum your body can absorb and process at a time. She also said to get protein in every four hours, or your body begins to go into fasting mode, and will begin to use your lean muscle mass for energy, rather than fat stores.

Oh lord... FUNERAL POTATOS!!!! They're soo good. I was raised LDS too, though I stopped going to church when I was about 15. It's just not my path, but wow... those potatos are the best thing ever, and about the worst thing you can eat. They get their name because when someone passes away, the ladies Relief Society (which is sort of a women's auxilliary) helps to put together a banquet for people to attend after the funeral service. The potatos are a staple, and that's how they got their name. Your standard Mormon banquet, whether a wedding or a funeral, will have dinner rolls, iceburg lettuce salad, some sort of jello salad, funeral potatos, ham, and some kind of a desert, along with a non caffeinated beverage, usually fruit punch, root beer, or 7-up. (Did I hit all the major points, Hillary? LOL...) Anyway, I agree. Don't make them, or you won't be able to stop! Sorry to hear about the troubles with your BF, Hillary, but it sounds like you're doing the best with what you've got, which is all any of us can do really. I've had my good food days and bad food days lately too. I'll own that I had one night this week where I broke into the Forbidden Cabinet of evil snack foods, and had a mini binge on potato chips dipped in Nutella. Still, I'm reminding myself that it isn't the end of the world, and even though I slipped up and backslid into my bad habits for a moment, my good days are far outweighing the bad, and the scale is showing it. I ended up having to get a bit of an unfill after all. I woke up last Friday morning so tight that I was having chest pain every time I took a sip of liquid. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the chest, and I was pretty miserable. I managed to elbow my way into an appointment that afternoon. My PA took out .3cc, which was enough to give me some relief. 4cc wasn't enough, 4.6cc was too much, so hopefully 4.3 will be just right. I'm ready for some green zone action. I started moving more this week, and went for a couple of long walks with a girlfriend of mine, even when I really didn't want to go one day after a crappy day of work. I'm going to make a point of doing more this weekend too. I had good weight loss last week, and dropped to 262.5, but I've been bouncing back and forth between that and 263/264/262.5 all week. I've also been eating too much salt, and not drinking enough water so I'm sure that has something to do with it. I'm just doing my best to stay on target and stay motivated, even when the scale doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I have to confess, my head plays a lot of tricks on me. Some days I'm high as a kite, and raring to go, and other days I get really down on myself and have a lot of self doubt as to whether or not I'm going to be able to pull this off, or if I'll lose a bit and then flunk out and regain everything like I have so many times before.

Hey everyone, I'm still alive, still trucking on... just got busy with life and haven't been on LBT in a while. I'm down a few more pounds, which is great, but I'm having a hard time finding my green zone. I had a smallish fill on Monday, and prior to my fill I had restriction, but not enough. Smaller meals weren't keeping me full, even on full solids and having lots of protein. I've got a 10cc band, and was at 4cc when I went in. My PA added just .6 and I think I might be a little bit too tight! I'm surprised, because it was such a small fill, and previously, I had a lot more in my band (5.5 or 6cc) before I started having issues. I haven't gotten full on stuck, but eating and drinking is uncomfortable, and ever sip or bite gives me uncomfortable tightness in my chest. On the upside, It's done wonders for my portion control... Anyhow, I have a follow up on Monday the 8th, and if I can't find a good balance before then, I'll have her take my fill back down a little bit. In the meantime, I'm doing protein shakes in the morning, mushy things for lunch, and softer proteins and veggies for dinner like tofu and fish at dinner in light sauces. I'm eating carefully, taking small bites, and chewing a billion times. It's taking me a good while to get through meals, but I'm making it without sticking or sliming, at least. Either way, I hope the tightness chills out a bit and I can start eating and drinking more normally, but we'll see how it goes. I'm going to dinner with a friend tonight, and I'm hoping that everything goes down okay.

I find that sodium plays a BIG part on the scale for me. Different strokes for different folks, but I like to weight myself every day and track it on a calendar. That way I can see the day to day fluations, and as long as I've got a downward trend, I don't care about the day I magically "gain" three pounds overnight. Las week, I went out for pho with a girlfriend of mine. It's a really tasty vietnamese rice noodle soup (I ordered it without noodles) with slices of rare beef and brisket that I lovingly refer to it as a "bowl of salt." The next morning, sure enough I was up two pounds, but it came off in a day or so. Just drink your water and don't stress it.

Also, since one of my roommates is vegetarian, even if he cooks something healthy and is kind enough to offer some to me, there's very little protein in the dish, and that's a dietary priority for me right now.

Hey Amy, I get the roommate thing. My roommates are great, but they can be a little bit clueless too. I know I've explained how the band works, and one of the two has seen me when I was so tight that I couldn't eat anything, but I still don't think they really get it. Sometimes, it's really not a matter of if I WANT to eat something, I just can't risk it. On top of that, there is a HUGE amount of junk food in the house. One of our cupboards is full of total diet killers. I've started referring to it as the "Cupboard of Forbidden Delights." Currently there are two whole shelves full of nothing but potato chips, cheetos, pretzels, doritos, nutella, whoppers, jelly Beans, and no less than five varieties of Girl Scout Cookies. Any or all of those things go down just fine with the band, as we all know! Yesterday, I pulled the few good foods that are mine out of there, including steel cut oats, chia seeds, whole almonds, etc... not all of them are band friendly, but they're healthier, at least. I've done pretty well at staying away from the junk, and I'm hoping that the old "out of sight, out of mind" trick will help. If I don't have to stare a jumbo sized jar of Nutella in the face every time I reach in to grab a tablespoon of chia seeds, it might be a little bit easier to stay on track. I'm going to try to carve out a little space in another cupboard to keep my Protein powders and other assorted band friendly bits.

I think it's fair to say that some surgeries are better for some people than others. For some folks who are super obese and their health is in immediate danger, something like the sleeve or bypass might be the best course because they lose weight so fast. Personally I got the band for several reasons. 1) I was self pay, and the other surgeries were more costly. 2.) The band is easily removed or unfilled if there are problems. The other surgeries aren't adjustable either. 3.) I was only 27 at the time I got the band, and I hope to be around another 50 or 60 years, and I wasn't going to have a surgery that was going to rearrage my plumbing with so much of my life ahead of me. Plus, ultimately whatever surgery you get, you have to commit to a lifestyle change, and the recommended diet is practically identical, folks who get bypass or VSG just have to take more Vitamins. BTW, I picked up some Protein shake mixes last night, Spirutein and Jay Robb, and I gave them a shot this morning. I mixed the two together with a cup of nonfat milk and a few blackberries and the flavor is great, but the shake is INTENSE and super thick, and weighing in at about 350 calories and 50g protein, which reall is too much protein for one sitting. (I was told the body can't absorb more than 40g at a go.) I've got some tweaks to make, but so far I'm really happy with the shakes. I've got a fill this afternoon, wish me luck!

Oh, and one more non scale victory: hauling my curvy butt out of bed at 8am on only four hours of sleep so that I could make it to the class and meetings today. That's a bitter pill for me to swallow, because I love my "beauty rest", and sleeping in on the weekends is almost a sacred ritual for me. There's not much that will get me out of bed early on a Saturday, and sure as hell not on only 4 hours of sleep, so yay me!

Hillary, I think you're doing pretty well under the circumstances. I'm lucky that my migraines rarely last more than a day, and you're trying to balance multiple changes at once, all under the pressure of a migraine. I say give yourself some credit where credit is do and continue to do the best you can, one day at a time. I need to quit my weight watchers too. I only use the online tool, but I haven't touched them in almost two months, and I started using MyFitnessPal a couple of weeks ago. Since then, like you, I don't see the point of double tracking, and I like that I can keep track of my intake, including percentages of Protein, fat, carbs, etc... and WW only tracks points. What makes WW work for me so well is it's simplicity, but at the same time, it's not realistic for me to try to meet the band nutrition guidelines using points... though I suppose one could try using Power Foods instead, or whatever they're calling it now. Meh. For me, I think I'll keep my $17 a month in my pocket for now. Suzi, I went to a support meeting today at my band clinic today too. Today was the first one I've EVER been to. When I was first banded, they only had meetings in the evenings midweek, and it conflicted with my work schedule. I still don't get out of work early enough to do the midweek meetings, but in the time I've been gone, the in house nutritionist has started doing meetings. I did a Bariatric Nutrition 101 class that lasted from about 9am-12pm. They do a yoga class from 12-1, and then a Nutrition Support meeting that lasted from about 1-3pm. I skipped the yoga to grab lunch. I drank a high protein Ensure at the start of the class, but by noon, I was ravenous and knew I didn't want to sit through another couple of hours of food classes on a growling stomach! LOL! Non scale victory- even though I had to grab lunch on the go and ended up going to Panda Express, I ordered a bowl and only had them leave out about 3/4 of the rice (about 2 cups!) and got one of the lighter entree shrimp dishes. I really wanted the crispy beef or orange chicken, but I'm working too hard to sabotage myself with fried foods! I know I could have eaten a lot more than I did, and in the past, I would have had them fill the whole bowl so that I could "get my money's worth" with the intention of saving some for later... and invariably, I'd eat way too much and probably down the whole thing in one sitting. I may not have made the most sensible choice for my wallet, but I'm proud of myself for making better choices at lunch. I'm also pretty proud of myself for not completely blowing my day at the movies last night. I got tied up at work and didn't have time to eat before meeting my friends, and I was pretty hungry by the time we got to the concessions booth, and so I thought I'd grab a snack to hold me over until we had dinner after the movie. I'm thinking nachos maybe. They might not be the best choice, but how bad can some tortilla chips and that little cup of cheese sauce be, right? I was aghast when I got to the counter and realized that they'd added calorie counts to all of their menu items. Almost 1400 Calories for nachos! How the hell? Anyway, after seeing the calorie counts for the mini pizzas, popcorn, hot dogs, anything really... I just couldn't bring myself to order anything. I stuck out the movie and saved my calories for dinner. I had a glass of wine at dinner, a small portion of sauteed mushrooms, less than half of the baked potato that was presented, and only half of the steak, which was maybe 6 or 7 ounces. I also had a tiny slice of cake at dinner. Now, I know those aren't exactly band portions, and the wine and cake were a splurge, but I was SO GOOD all week, (and today) and considering I hadn't eaten much yesterday, and turned my back on the concession stand at the movie, I feel pretty damn good about it, especially since I know for a fact that I probably could have eaten the whole potato and the whole steak without a problem, with as little restriction as I have so far. At any rate, the nutrition class and the support meeting after were a huge help. One of my biggest concerns when I was first banded was with the lack of solid nutrition info I was given. I was told to eat 4 oz meals, three times a day, and no Snacks. 9 of my daily 12oz were supposed to be protein. I thought to myself, how the hell am I supposed to get the fruits, veggies, and Fiber my body needs to go along with my protein on that leftover 3 oz a day?!? Well, turns out, the nutritionist who leads the class is a patient of the practice who was banded 10 years ago. She was a nurse, and even though she wasn't a nutritionist (yet) she put together a program that worked for her and lost about 110 lbs and got to goal within a year. As time has gone on, bariatric nutrition info has gotten a lot better, and we know to shoot for 90+ grams of protein a day. We all know protein powders are a great way to do that. I was also introduced to the idea of adding flax seeds and chia seeds to my food to add a serious dose of fiber and also help with feeling full at meals. (If you add chia seeds though, know that they're going to expand, so its good to either add them either into a liquid ahead of time, or sprinkle them over the last few bites of your food because once they hit your stomach they're going to expand.) I'm also going to try some of the "fruits and greens" powders that they have, which you can add to your morning Protein shake. (She said to keep the total shake at around 300-400 calories max, but you can get in up to 40g of protein all in one meal this way, right at the start of your day.) I'm also going to keep on making one of my new favorite snacks: kale chips. You tear the kale into chip sized pieces, toss with a little olive oil and your choice of seasoning, which can be soy sauce, garlic powder, sriracha, nutritional yeast, or others, and then bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes to dehydrate them. They're super light, and you get the benefits of the greens without having to fight the tough, fibrous leaves down the way you would if they were raw. I have another appointment for a fill on Monday, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get closer to the restriction I'm looking for. I'm only at 3CCs in a 10CC band, and I expect I'll probably find my sweet spot between 5 and 6CCs, if my last go around is any indicator. I feel like I'm starting to get a grip on how I can do this the second time around with a solid nutritional plan, and I'm even more determined to make this work. Keep at it folks, and share how you're doing!