OldSchool76

Right. The original question was about any rules with an example of the drinking issue. Figured an all purpose start was better than nothing. :thumbup: My doc says no drinking 60 min before and 30 min after. For me, at lower restriction levels, the 'wash through' was the effect. Now, I cannot drink and eat.

I was huge. I weighed in at 431 pounds (and was probably lighter by about 20lbs than I had been in a while). I knew that the Doctor would want me to lose some weight before surgery as a 2 week pre-op diet was part of my particular surgeon's best practices. At my initial consult, the Doc weighed me in and after some review, assigned me a 14 pound loss target (Go/No Go). I was self pay, so my timeline was accelerated. I was to drink two shakes per day and have one sensible meal (yea, I enjoyed the irony of that as well). First off, the shakes were to be mixed in water. I suspected that might suck and wouldn't you know it, it did. But I reckoned that I could do ANYTHING for two weeks. So my Magic Bullet (the BLENDER!) and I became fast friends. What I noticed was after the first week, the meals were not as critical. The weight was coming off (funny what a 1200 calorie diet will do to you) and my energy level was acceptable given the duration I had to endure. I stayed with basic, low calorie proteins and vegetables at dinner and was all in all, a damn good patient. At the end of the 2 weeks I had lost in excess of the target and was greenlit for surgery. While that was the goal, the reason for the post is as follows: 1. The pre-op diet is not as hard as you may believe. You are simply angry that your lifestyle is being changed in exactly the ways that have never worked for you over the long haul before. Suck it up and count down the days. There is no easy way to tackle it and to cover it in candy and flowers is not empowering but condescending. 2. It is medically necessary and jump starts your new journey. You have work to do. The band is a tool but you have to learn skills like portion control (which it will help with) so doing this for a short duration is a great boot camp and when combined with the the first few weeks post involving fluids does a great job of de-emphasizing food as a pleasure center or reward and re centering you on using it as energy. 3. The psychological battle, for me, is the toughest part. The social interactions. The expectations of your social network around consumption that you may not even be aware of. Using this time to strategize your next phases was critical for me to get into the interactions that life offers. So, while a pain in the ass, I think the pre-op diet is a GREAT tool and not something to be worked around over or through to minimize change. If you are taking this step, embrace it and use all of the aspects of the process toward your end goal.

Good: Chilli, tuna and chicken salad, eggs I agree I can eat almost everything if I am careful but those are staples of mine Bad: Any dry Protein

Here is a good link for you to start with. It is a PDF. http://images.obesityhelp.com/magfiles/golden.pdf I am pretty concerned that nobody reviewed this with you.

I was told 60-80 grams as well. I normally hit a protein shake for breakfast and a protein bar mid morning which gets me to 50 and leave the rest to chance.

Almost 90 pounds but a long way yet to go! I want 100 by July 20th!

Thanks for the kind words!

Having been fat my whole life (well, the parts I can remember) I knew that at some point my run of good luck on the health side would run out. I had been fortunate to have only Sleep Apnea as a co-morbidity so I enraged my Doctors by being over 400 lbs and still maintaining great BP and blood work (and being surprisingly cardiovascularly capable according to a trainer I worked with). Well, as life does, things changed. My wife and I had a son and as he grew I realized that what was somehow acceptable to me (being this large) would not be acceptable to me with and for him. I gave myself a deadline to get this done by myself as I had lost in excess of 100lbs previously (through WW and Low Carb diets in the past). January rolled around and I had not gotten the job done. I had already done research on the procedures and had recently watched a friend's father have laproscopic gastric bypass and enjoy tremendous results. My wife and I went out and attended a few seminars to narrow our Doctor choices and then moved forward. I was to go first and if I did not die (that is a joke) she would go next. We chose Dr. Tiffani Jessie for the procedure and were self pay so the lead time was minimal. I had only ever been through one surgery (emergent appendectomy) but that experience had tainted my view of surgical procedures. That fear crept in but I knew I was doing this so that one day my son's friends would not comment to him about how fat his dad was and so that I could obtain life insurance that would help protect my family in the event of a catastrophe. These goals were more important than anything. With that as the background, the team in Dr. Jessie's office prepared me. I went through the mundane nutrition seminar, the useless (for me) psych eval and the required pre-testing. The event was upon us and I was scared. Fast forward 2 hours (of which I believe only 45 minutes was actual surgery time) and my band was installed! I felt fine and was ambulatory within 30 minutes. The procedure was amazingly simple. In fact, had I know it would be that simple I may have made what I feel was a life changing decision years earlier. My weight loss has been outstanding. Recovery was simple and straight forward. This process, even with the goofy bits, has been a life changer so far. I am now eligible (and will soon have) life insurance. I am nowhere near my long term goal but am headed in the right direction and have every confidence that I will get there. Sooner rather than later.

From: Read more: Squelching Myths about Weight Loss Surgery - For Dummies Weight loss surgery will save your marriage Actually, the opposite is true. The divorce rate among couples in which one has had weight loss surgery is higher than the average. Many couples are not able to weather the drastic change that happens when one spouse loses a tremendous amount of weight. Your spouse may become jealous of the new attention that you're receiving. Or you may find that with improved self-esteem, you're no longer willing to endure treatment that you don't find acceptable. Or, with a whole new appearance, your personality may change — and your spouse may not like that new personality

Totally agree on the "John Daly" Any lemonade works!

I am under the impression that you are correct. Protein from food (like a chicken breast or whatever) also has other constituent parts (like fiber) and takes the digestive system time to break down. For me, in the morning, my band feels tighter. I also LOVE the regimen and regularity so I have a Protein shake for breakfast and a Protein Bar mid morning. Total calories about 320 and total protein 50g (combined). That gets my day off to a good start and allows me to find my extra 10-30 g of protein in my other meals. I imagine folks use it as a way to portion out their intake more than anything else. I have read that certain Proteins are more readily digestible (eggs for example) that others (red meat).

So this is interesting to me. I have a 14 CC band and have been losing weight. I do notice, however, that as time elapses I am able to eat more (normally at dinner). My most recent fill brought me to 7.8 cc (was a .6 cc adjustment) and I will tell you this. It is FAR more restrictive. Maybe this is what I was supposed to get to, I am not sure. I know that I am having to be VERY careful about everything (I was being a good patient before, but now it is extreme). Is this the "Sweet Spot" you folks refer to? I am on a business trip (which usually causes at best a stoppage of weight loss due to increased sodium consumption from dining out) but I know that my quantities will be down across the board.

My first fill the Doc had problems finding my port as well. The poking around with her finger was FAR more painful than the insertion. I get no pain med or numbing and consider it less painful than a flu shot.

I am down a good amount now but I still do't "see it" when I look in the mirror. I did, recently, have to buy all new clothes. In that process, I found my last new suit (worn once). Now I just purchased a few new suits amongst other things so I figured I would try it on and man, was I floored. the thing was HUGE on me. Now I am still a very large man (and working to become less large by the day) but by comparison, it is amazing. Keep on working on it and try and get a little rabid form time to time (I have been adding a lot more exercise and a lot of varied exercise to try and accelerate weight loss or at the least change body composition). One of my hobbies is broadcasting. I have a YouTube channel for fun and the first folks that really noticed were my viewers on the channel. I can't tell you how touched I was when I posted a video after a significant hiatus and had a page of comments congratulating me on the weight loss (the content was totally unrelated). Seems like you are doing great. Use the measurements and photos as your guide and happily take the compliments you get. You deserve them!

Everything in moderation including moderation, right? I have had some beer since my surgery but no other carbonated beverages. I opt for, when drinking: 1. Vodka and Cranberry 2. Sweat Tea Vodka and Lemonade 3. Whiskey Sour (Though I suppose Midori would work too) When mixing at home (on occasion) I use the delicious Vitamin Water Zero as a mixer. Been very pleased thus far.

BCBS/FL with the PPO plan slammed the door on me sending both my wife and I to the self pay lane. :-(

Just want to echo this great post. I have been fortunate as I have noticed restriction at each fill but the keys for me have been: Fluid Consumption Protein Intake (shakes and additives) Exercise Walking is great and a terrific way to start, but as I lose more I feel more like doing more. Yard work. Sports. Anything. The more you do the more impact it will have and that will encourage you to continue the efforts.

I have not had a carbonated soda but I must admit, I have has a few beers since surgery. While I drink them much more slowly, i have never had any horrific side effects.

Like others have said, it varies with the tightness of your band but I have found that social settings are not as hard as I had imagined they would be. The trickiest bits for me are: 1. Avoiding alcohol (or drinking at all) 2. Avoiding sodium Now the above two things are simply because I am trying to lose aggressively. Foodwise, before my last fill, I could eat almost any food in smaller quantities. The last fill has made that more difficult so fish, moist Proteins and Soups are the staple. Yesterday, I went to lunch with my wife and ordered the healthy chicken breast lunch (Grillsmith). It was a Chicken Breast, a scoop of potatoes and grilled asparagus. I ate half the chicken breast, two asparagus spear tips and half the scoop of potatoes. I took the other half of the chicken breast home and made chicken salad out of it for dinner. Did it feel weird? Yup. But it works and it can be worked through.

Congratulations! That is a major milestone. I hope to be hitting my Century mark soon!

Only one fill in but this was exactly my experience. I am now 'tighter' in the AM so my beloved scrambled egg is gone on work days, replaced with a Protein shake, but other than that, it was fairly painless.

Banded on 2/17 Highest Weight was 431 Just had my first fill and down 57 lbs so far. (Sorry, my sig makes this a bit redundant)

While a fan of the unjury line (need to try the Isopure), I found the Premier Nutrition shakes at costco after a recommendation on here and WOW! 1 11 Oz (Premade) has 160 Cal, 3g Fat and 30 g of Protein and it takes GREAT! Costco only seems to have chocolate, but that is OK with me. After my first fill (6.5 cc) eggs are tough for me in the early AM. These shakes are very filling and easy.

I have noticed the flip side more often. I am cold far more often then ever before. I know in the past when I lost weight, I sweat less.

I just had my first fill. I had one day of fluids, 1 day of mushies then incorporate normal food. I definitely see a difference in restriction (and that is good). Pretty cool process all in all.