Twinkles

I think it was about a week, maybe 10 days. But there was plenty of 'extracurricular activities' prior to that.

I pureed a lot of soups at this stage. Mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, a lot of stuff. Baby food.

I had a friend who wasn't really that supportive. Mostly because of misinformation. Now... he sees how wrong he was and supports me to the fullest. Maybe she'll come around. In my case it was more from worry, then not really being totally unsupportive, just super worried.

This happened to me and I was DEVASTATED!!! I originally went through this whole process in 2007. I started my 6 month diet in August 2007. Well, wouldn't you know, our benefits plan changed and effective Jan 2008, surgery was no longer covered. One freaking month! January would have been the end of my 6 month diet. I just couldn't believe it. I had already had my psych eval, all the medical tests done, everything. I contemplated self pay, procrastinated a few years, then 2010, the plan changes again and it is again covered. I jumped on that as soon as I found out in February. FINALLY, after 3 years, I was banded July 2010. I hope your plan stays status quo!!! Good luck!

I weigh myself daily and only record when I change weight. I also take my measurements (chest, waist, hips, upper arm, forearm, thigh and calf) every Thursday, I also take front and side pics every Thursday as well and my 'official' weight recording is Thursday's too. At this point, I'm losing 3-5 pounds per week. Total of 49 pounds since 7/29/10.

I've found it at WalMart. Right by all the other Tylenol.

Wow Gabbi, I agree with everybody else, that is a bit extreme. My bites are about 1/2 teaspoon a piece. I chew each bite about 30 times, then wait maybe another 30-60 seconds to take another bite. It is a big adjustment. Before I was a hurried eater (which of us wasn't though?) so I've had to REALLY concentrate on my eating, most the time my food is cold by the time I'm done with it.

I live in Las Vegas, NV and I'm a Financial Systems Support Analyst for a consulting company. I'm a 'telecommuter' and work from home. It's nice, but it would also be nice to go into an office and have real conversations with people face to face. Pretty much all my communication is done via e-mail, IM or phone. Other than that, 33, married to my HS sweetheart and have two insanely crazy active boys (9 and 5).

It takes me 20-30 minutes to eat 1/2 cup.

I was banded on a Thursday and back at work on the following Monday. My stomach was a bit sore still but I managed. I think I would have driven myself insane if I would have taken more time off. It was nice to get my head back into a normal routine. Good luck!

Hot damn! I thought I lost mine many many years ago. Never knew exactly where it went, but it went into hiding apparently. Here I am, 48 pounds lighter, walking through my bathroom into my closet, I turned my head to look in the mirror as I passed and STOPPED DEAD IN MY TRACKS! Then I stood there and admired it from all different angles for about 5 minutes. Yelled for my husband to come and check out my collar bone, he got a kick out of my reaction, gave me a high five with a hug and kiss. What can I say, :smile2: I'm insanely proud that my collar bone decided to come out of hiding. Just had to share.

Funny how we can all be so happy about bones that were once a mystery and are now appearing in random places on our body. Glad I'm not the only one out there who was thrilled to be able to admire them once they started showing. :smile2: Congrats to you all on your progress so far!!!

Ooohh - I can't wait to see my hip bones. The are getting closer, so hopefully just a matter of time. Nicole - I haven't had any fills yet. I had my 8 week checkup a couple of weeks ago and felt no need for it. BUT, I did forget to ask if he did a fill at surgery, so I have no clue if there is anything in it or not at this point. I will say that I'm full after about 1/2 a cup of food and will generally stay satisfied for about 3-4 hours. I do also drink 4 oz of Optisource Bariatric High Protein drink between meals, so that helps to keep me satisfied as well. However, it does seem just within the last couple of days, I'm not as satisfied as I was. I may go in the week after next, to see about a small fill. We are going hunting this week and I don't want to be out, a few hundred miles from my Dr or a hospital after my first fill. Kind of paranoid about it.

YES YES YES!!! There would be no doubt in my mind. I'm so happy with it at this point. Went to the Dr for my first 8 week check on Wednesday, didn't need a fill and he was very pleased with my progress too. 46 pounds gone that I will never see again!!!

So, finally, after 42 pounds, I've dropped some sizes... In fact, I've dropped two sizes in the last week. Now I struggle with, how long do I keep my bigger clothes, I mean, it feels REALLY odd to know I can get rid of them knowing that I won't need them again when this 'diet' fails in a couple of months because history will not be repeating itself. Some sort of sick attachment to them, I guess. The other thing is how often did you all buy clothes? I'm trying to only go out and get some essentials every 2-3 sizes, but crap, my shirts look like party tents and my shorts or pants fall down just walking to the front door. I'm starting to look like a bag lady. So I also don't want to look like that either.

Oh and YES... It does feel GREAT to have this problem!

A lot of really good ideas and advice! I hadn't thought of a thrift store or CL. I agree in getting rid of the oversize clothes, I think it's important, just nerve wracking!

I'm DEFINITELY going to look into this. I started running on the treadmill about 2 weeks ago and love it, but would love to follow some type of program with you all. Thanks for posting about it!

I was extremely overwhelmed after my first appt with my nutritionist. One thing I should have asked is what is their recommended caloric intake AFTER surgery. I didn't ask and it was no where in my materials. All it said was 3 - 1/2 cup meals per day. Well, I was doing that and only hitting about 250 calories per day. I had stopped losing weight about 2 weeks after surgery, presumably because my body was in starvation mode. Came on here and everyone told me that was insanely low and they were around 800-1200. So, I asked my nutritionist and she said I should be around 800. I'm getting there, but still struggling a bit. I'm getting about 600 in, I'm just not hungry and can't eat anymore, but I FINALLY dropped another pound after about 10 days of nothing. Make sure you have a good layout of your food stages after surgery too. How long on Clear liquids, soft, etc.

It could be all sorts of things. I would run it by your Dr because if you bleed too much, you run the risk of anemia and with the reduced Vitamins and minerals already in your diet due to surgery, it is probably best to have it at least checked out. My first period came out of left field after surgery. It started when it was supposed to, but I usually have a headache, backache, sore boobs, cramps about 4-7 days before. I had no symptoms whatsoever, so kind of thought it would be delayed due to the stress of the surgery. Nope, showed up when it was supposed to, I just didn't think it would due to the lack of all my typical symptoms.

I go by my scale. My scale and the hospitals scale were exact, but my surgeon's scale is about 2 annoying pounds more. I also started measuring because I'm down 33 pounds and have not dropped one stinking size, but have lost inches galore. Quite annoying really.

UGH - I'm getting about 30 grams of Protein per day, but all my nutrition paperwork says I should be getting about 50-60. Where on earth do I get this from? I'm on 'soft' foods, banded on 7/29. I'm eating 1/2 cup of food, 3 x's per day, about 250 calories total for the day. Where can I pull this protein from out of that? No snacking, drinking 2 oz's of Water every 15 minutes... I mean, there isn't a lot of room to fit more protein in. Help!!!

Just wanted to update... I heard back from my nutritionist and she said I should be consuming 800 calories and 60 grams of Protein, this would have been nice to know from the beginning. Oh well. So, it looks like I've got some food to consume.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I think I did pretty good today. I'm up to about 500 calories and I'm getting ready to go work out, so I may have another Protein shake after. I pretty much stayed with the same food, but added in the Protein shakes. I wanted to get another one in earlier, but my planning was off. My oldest has football practice for 3 hours Tues-Fri. evenings, so I'm trying to plan around being up at the field during that time. Oh well, it will get better. I'll probably end up throwing a shake into the cooler to drink half way through. Oh, I am up to about 50 grams of protein, so I think, like many of you said, it will definitely be beneficial for me to get down 2-3 protein shakes during the day. I still haven't heard from my nutritionist, but I'm just gonna steam roll right ahead with the wonderful advice from all you lovelies. BTW, I already feel better, is that possible? I don't feel as exhausted as I normally do at 9:30pm, I'm on my way to work out after all! THANKS!!!!

Thank you all!!! I'm going to work on increasing my calories today and hopefully my body will decide to let go of some more poundage. We read through all the material again last night and my husband said that maybe they write it super strict assuming people are going to cheat. Well, that sucks for the people who don't cheat and end up consuming 250 calories a day. The thing that irks me is that there are absolutely no calorie guidelines in any of it. Basically says 3, 1/2 cup meals per day, no snacking. Well, it's no wonder that I haven't been eating more than 250 calories. BAH! My goal today, with the Protein shakes will be about 600 calories and we'll go from there. Hopefully my nutritionist responds soon. Thanks again!!!