Oberhasli

If you don't like the taste of alcohol, why drink any? Alcohol is not low in calories (1 ounce of 80 proof Vodka has about 65 calories not counting the mixer) and offers very little nutritional value. (There are some health benefits to drinking limited amounts of alcohol.) There are single serve versions of most cocktails, including mudslides. They're usually sold with the wine coolers. The amount of carbonation in most wine coolers is not likely to cause problem. The other option is just to have wine. Most of the lighter wines (white, blush, rose, etc.) have fewer than 100 calories per 4 ounce serving. Tom

Women. Expect love and sex to have to go together. <sigh> :heh: I hope to have a garden in next year and will look to that. I am a salt-aholic. Fortunately, blood pressure has never been an issue for me. No looking for any hearts. Been there, done that. Actually VERY much enjoy being single and alone. It's the first time in my life that I've lived alone. (Well, I do have the three dogs that share my bed.) The batchelor life is suiting me just fine, thank you. Did love once, next time, it will be for money! :omg:

Yesterday morning I had the local PBS station on (don't have cable and wasn't in the mood for cartoons) and they had heard something interesting. They were doing their membership fund-raising campaign and had a doctor who developed the You Diet. For a sizable donation they'd give you the book and/or DVD. I was running the vacuum and cleaning the bathroom while it was on so didn't watch the whole program but did hear some interesting tidbits. First of all, one of his recurring keys throughout the program is that you must walk 30 minutes a day everyday. (He also suggests a pedometer and to walk 10,000+ steps a day.) The benefits of walking are numerous. The other tidbit I found interesting is that the he mentioned the area of the brain that controls hunger is the same area the thirst, the need for exercise and the need for sex. His recommendation is before eating, to increase the other areas first. If you've drank, exercised and had sex and are still hungry, then that is probably what you need but often times, you need one of the other three and your brain gets confused and makes you think you need food. He also mentioned eating high-fiber in the morning if you have afternoon cravings. The Fiber will have approached the appropriate area in your intestinal tract by afternoon and you won't feel as hungry. He also said to "automate" your food. He eats the same thing for Breakfast and lunch everyday. He also said spicy food slows down the digestive process and makes you feel fuller, longer. He specifically mentioned having a V8 juice everyday. (While I am now even more committed to having more sex, I have been having 6 ounces of Spicy V8 every morning for quite some time. :heh: ) Just thought I'd share the information. If it happens to be rebroadcast on your local PBS station, you might try and catch it. A very straight-forward common sense approach. Tom

At one time, I drank at least 6 cans of Diet Coke a day. I reduced myself to 2 cans a day a few years ago. I still drank non-caffiene (Diet Sprite, Diet Root Beer, etc.) after the two cans but was limiting my caffiene. When I started on this Quest, I was told no caffiene or carbonation. I did go through "detox" but managed to be caffiene and carbonation free for several months. I then would sneak an occasional pop. I have had pop since surgery. I drink it slow. A 20 ounce bottle is at least a full day. I have a bottle of Diet Berries and Cream Dr. Pepper in my desk at work. It's been 3 days so far on the one bottle. I'm a strong believer of all things in moderation. I've not had any ill-effects of carbonation. I *DON'T* suggest you try and drink it with food that tends to get stuck as that is VERY uncomfortable. You're probably better off without it, but if you can handle it in moderation, I doubt the world will come crashing down. (I've even had a Diet Coke with rum or Jack Daniels in it and I'm still alive.) Tom

Bless you, Sister Kjojojr! Tom

Congratulations on the weight break through! Be cautious smearing peanut butter on a zone bar. Peanut butter is a great source of protein BUT it is also high in fat and calories. The Zone Bar probably has over 200 calories on it's own. 1 tablespoon of peanut butter (which is 1/2 of a serving) has 95 calories. You can easily go over 300 calories. Not to say that both don't have benefits to offer, just be a bit cautious. As to the saggy skin, thus why I'm at the gym exercising twice a week. I'm certainly hanging in places I shouldn't be. A girl I work with had gastric bypass surgery several years ago and she had to have skin removed. Of course, she lost almost as much as she know weighs. Another advantage to slow weight loss. Skin is very elastic (or it would have never stretched over all the "extra") so it will retract. Drink LOTS of fluids to help keep the skin elastic. And exercise, exercise, exercise. Tom

I'm sure there can be calories burned just watching. :omg: Tom

Dr. A. Be careful what you ask for. You want pictures with NO thong! Hmmm. I didn't know this was that kind of site but that can be arranged. Maybe that would help on my quest to "help" with exercising! :omg: Tom

I'm battling that right now. 3 ccs was too much (4 cc band) and even liquid struggled to get through. I've got 2.5 cc now and as long as I behave myself and chew, chew, chew, I'm fine. Like many, I've eaten on the run and on the go. To me eating was a sprint, not a marathon. I rarely have a day where I don't have something stuck. Somedays are better than others. Some days, it seems like every meal, I have an issue. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not, but I've always had the ability to vomit on command. Even as a baby, I'd have "projecticle vomiting" out of the bassonette. When something is stuck, I simply "dislodge" it and move on. It's easier than putting up with the pain. Now if I could just convince myself to slow down. I'm getting better and it's happening less frequently, but still more often than it should. I can tell as soon as I swallow that it's going to be an issue. Sometimes, I can feel it going through, ableit painful, others, I need to remove it. On the positive side, last week was a good week scale wise. I only made it to the gym once but I did LOTS of work on the barn so did get plenty of exercise. The scale was down 5 pounds since last week. I'm now down 47 pounds in 17 weeks. I'm 18 pounds from my original goal but I think I need to reset that. I'm in the top size slack I wanted to be but I still see WAY too much of me. I figured with my body structure, which is large framed, I couldn't get much lower than a 38 waist slack. Rethinking that now that I'm there. And another NSV. I had to buy new underwear and I bought L. Not only not multiple X's, no X at all! Maybe I'll switch from boxer briefs to thongs! Tom

Make sure you're not looking for the "I just ate at a buffet and can't hold another bite" feeling when trying to decide if you feel full. I did that at first and had LOTS of pain. Remember, you still have all of your stomach, just part of it is sectioned off. You have to learn what is full in the new pouch and stop when that is full. Your mind may tell you that you want more but learn what is a comfortable feeling in the pouch and stop. DON'T drink with your meals because you end up flushing the food out of the pouch into the lower section of the stomach. The whole idea of the band is that the food goes through slowly so you feel full, albeit it a new "full", longer. If you flush it through too quickly, you defeat the purpose. As others have said, keep up the Protein content. And the exercise will kick start the metabolism. Don't over-react. We all are different. It's not a race. We can ALL get to the finish line and we can all win. Just keep doing what you know is right. Go back to the basics. Keep a food log. Calories tend to sneak in when we get complacent. We think we know but when you put pencil to paper, it may show a different story. Log your exercise. 10,000 steps a day is the minimum goal if you use a pedometer. (Personally, couldn't find one that worked but others swear by them.) Eat less of the right kind of foods, exercise more and you WILL lose weight. You may not drop 2-4 pounds a week but 1 pound a week consistently over time will make a big difference. Tomorrow is 18 weeks since 11/1, the earliest on here anyone was banded. If you're at least 18 pounds less than you were then, you're doing GREAT! That's 1 pound a week. If you're at 25 pounds, you're closer to 1.5 pounds per week even if you were banded on the first day of the month. Think back over the years and ask when the last time you lost over a pound a week for 4 months was! Remember, the band is not a cure for fat. It's a tool to help YOU lose the weight. YOU still have to do the work. Tom

I use to live on pasta. Cheap and filling. (And might explain the need for the band! <G>) Barilla Plus is good. Mueller's Whole Grain is as well. There's another brand that I think has harvest in the name that comes in a dark brown box but since I have severe CRS, I can't think of the name. I'm certainly not advocating a pasta-rich diet but for me, the more variety of healthy choices, the more likely I am to stay on track. Plus, I really do like pasta, especially when drenched in a high-fat sauce but those were the old days. :rolleyes Tom

I use the whole wheat/protein enchanced pastas. I think they taste better and are healthier. If I have the pasta in a soup or with sufficient low-fat sauce, I rarely have trouble with it and find it very filling. One cup of uncooked pasta will make about 4 meals when used with other ingredients (meat, veggies, etc.). I usually only will fix pasta once a week but it does several meals. Brown rice is another healthy "filler" that in soups our with sauces makes a nice change. Tom

The food journal, especially if you include how you're feeling when you eat, can be a great way to identify eating habits. Once you know what triggers eating, you can better control it. Be cautious of the protein shakes. They can easily get up to 200+ calories and tend to go through the band much quicker leaving you feeling hungry quicker. Like just about everything else, they aren't "bad" but too much of a good thing isn't always the best either. A nice protein fruit smoothie is far better than a milkshake but just use moderation. Tom

My dietician actually says CONTROLLED snacking is OK. If you totally deprive yourself when you do have something, you will binge. While it would be better to be 100% "good", we are human. 20 Doritos is SOOO much better than the whole bag! Moderation is the key. I've never been one to crave sweets (like candy bars) but recently I've been really wanting chocolate. I did buy some diet hot chocolate mix that has 25 calories per packet. I usually mix it with fat-free milk instead of water so it ups the calories some but figure that's better than a candy bar. One of the girls at work has candy on her desk all the time. Every now and then, I'll have one of the fun-size candy bars. Gives me the pleasure without all the sin. Tom

I've always despised bra shopping too. :heh: Tom

I called the corporate office of the franchisee and spoke to someone there. They were thrilled to get a positive call! And I tried the GM at the location but he's not in today do I'll try tomorrow. I work in customer service so realize you so rarely hear when something goes well so feel compelled to let them know. My friend I was having dinner with is a manager of a retail store and said he'd like to recruit her for his store but knows he can't touch the money she's making. Tom

:clap2: Congrats! :clap2:

Which is so much better than drooling because you have something stuck! Tom

On Friday night, I met a friend at TGI-Fridays for dinner. They were having the 3 course meal for $12.99. I figured it would be enough food for several meals so what the heck. For my appetizer, my friend got the fried green Beans. I was going to get the spicy chicken pot stickers but they had onion and I'm allergic to onion. (Our waiter was new but very conscientious. I asked if it did. He didn't think they did but came back out and told me they did so I could pick another item.) I decided to go for the totally unhealthy fried macaroni and cheese. (I ate one of them.) For my entree', I picked the tortilla encrusted tilapia. I'm not usually big on fish but it sounded good. It mentioned that it had green onion so I ordered it minus the onion. It came out covered in onion. The person bringing the food out was not my server but was very apologetic and returned the item. A couple minutes later the manager came over and told me that if I was allergic, the dish was probably not one of my better choices as the rice that came with it had onion, there was onion powder in the tortilla breading and onion somewhere else in addition to the green onion on top. She recommended the turkey burger saying it was quite good. I explained that I had the band and was worried it would be too dense to comfortable eat. She told me not to worry about sticking to the items on the combination list to just pick anything on the menu. She even asked one of the other managers who is allergic to onion what his suggestions would be. (He suggested ribs and I'm not a big fan of ribs.) She then suggested the beef brisket sandwich. I said I'd do that but not as a sandwich. A couple of minutes later she brought me out the entree, complete with parmesean potato wedges. And she brought me a pecan-encrusted chicken breast that they put on a salad. She said she wanted to give me some options. The level of attention she gave was unbelievable and WAY above the expected. I told her it was enough food for a week and she said that was great, just to come back next week when I ran out. For my guilty pleasure, I ordered the Cinn-a-bon Cheesecake. Basically, it's a Cinn-a-bon cinnamon bun as a cheesecake. I only ate two bites but it was a near-sexual experience. :hungry: I ended up getting 6 servings out of the one piece. I'll probably have gained 5 pounds just because of it but it was worth it. Even if I have to face the ellipitical trainer, it was worth it. :heh: And, on top of all that, my check was randomly selected to do a phone survey and I get a free appetizer next time I go back. Plus, she gave me their corporate phone number and told me if I call, they'll send me free stuff. And I'll be calling her General Manager on Monday to sing her praises. I work in customer service and all too often, you only hear what doesn't go right. Especially with my experience earlier in the week, I was so impressed. The food was quite good but it was the service that made the difference. Tom

You may be too full! I had 3 cc in a 4 cc band and nothing would go through. They back me down to 2.5 cc. MOST days I'm OK. Some days are rougher and I struggle to not get things stuck. Breads seem to be the most difficult. Usually, if the day starts out rough (usually have a poached egg and 1/4 of a toasted bagel for breakfast), it remains tough all day. Today was one of those days. I stuck to more liquid/soft foods (yogurt, Protein shakes, etc.) for most of the day. Fortunately, I guess, I've always been able to basically vomit on command. When I do get something stuck, I don't have much trouble bringing it back up. I'm getting to the point that I can almost tell as soon as I take the first bite whether I'm good or not. I just had the slime that builds up until the food is dislodged. It's a constant battle to take small bites and chew, chew, chew. Tom

[quote Tom...hmmmmm.. I am trying to see if I know someone your way that might help with the "other" exercising Applications gladly accepted. :heh: And, if they're willing to my sugar mommy (heck, at this point, I'd take a sugar daddy too!) all the better. Tom

I think, in the long run, you'll be MUCH happier with the slower, consistent weight loss. I've noticed that after not eating for a week due to too much of a fill and losing 12 pounds in a week, the skin is extra saggy. I'm hanging in all the wrong places. :omg: Skin is quite elastic. A bit slower loss allows the body to "resize" the skin more easily. I don't want to be a skinny person with tons of skin sagging. I've from someone I work with that had the gastric bypass and then needed a skin reduction surgery, the skin surgery was MUCH more painful and took longer to recover than did the bypass. As to the ellipitcal trainer, I'm sure there must be laws against them somewhere. I did stay on for 6 minutes but after 4 thought I was going to die. I was bound and determined to make it the 15 minutes but there's no way. I haven't been back on it. I've been doing the recumbent bike for 15 minutes (try to keep it equivalent to 15 MPH - burn about 500 calories per hour) followed by the weights (one day upper, one day lower) and then 5 more minutes on the bike. Trying to build the second session on the bike up to 15 minutes. Right now, I'm only going twice a week but I've been doing lots more around the farm moving hay bales, putting up fences, etc. Soon will be carrying Water buckets. I hope to work in another 1-2 times a week at the fitness center to do some cardio (bike, treadmill, etc.) And there will come a day when the ellipitical machine and I will meet. And, of course, I'm always trying to get as many of the "other" exercising in as possible. :help: Tom

Here's one calculator: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ I posted the formula a few weeks ago here so if you go through the archives, you can find it there. The "crude" formula is 10 calories per pound. There is a more complex, and probably more accurate, using age, weight and height. Tom

Misty, where are you finding that 1200 is "norm"? Most nutritional guides are based on a 2000 calorie diet when it lists the percent of daily requirements. Using the base of 10 calories per pound on the BMR scale, a 120 pound person that does NOTHING needs 1200 calories to maintain current weight. My guess is that none of us are anywhere near 120 pounds unless we happen to be about 2' tall or we wouldn't be here! You're likely to find that your BMR is a lot closer to 2000. (Just rechecked mine and mine is almost 2300.) While the calculators aren't as accurate as an actual reading (my reading showed almost 500 calories more than the calculator) it gives you a really good base from which to work. Once you have an idea of how many calories you need for the basic functions of life, you can better plan the calories you can consume keeping in mind that a daily reduction of 500 calories yields approximately one pound of weight loss. In other words, if you burn 2000 calories a day breathing and you eat 1500 calories a day, and you've done nothing else but breath all week, you should lose one pound. My suggestion is to calculate your BMR and strive for 500-750 calories less than the requirement. That's 1-1.5 pounds a week weight loss. ANYTHING you do will burn calories so if you could easily lose an additional 1 pound a week just with normal functions. Add in some cardio (the recumbent bike I use has a calorie counter and I burn about 500 calories an hour so if I would use it one hour a day, which does NOT happen, I would lose another pound a week just from that), maybe some light weights for toning, and of course, plenty of sex, and you should be able to lose weight at a healthy rate. Tom

Actually, goat is one of the leanest red meats available. As low in fat as chicken and very high in protein. Just what the doctor ordered! We could have a goat roast!!! YUM. (And since we can't eat much, we could roast a little one. :hungry: ) Tom