Search the Community

I appreciate your concern but I’ve actually be doing really well food wise and am just trying to make wise decisions for Memorial Day Weekend and such. I already gave up alcohol for lent just to tack on another reason why I can’t drink it lol!! Right now all I drink is water with the occasional diet snapple. If you have any preferred drinks please share!!

Hi Christel, would love to help you. If you are banded by Dr. McKeen his fills are $200 each. My insurance does not cover them. I have a 10cc band which holds 4.2ccs. I am at 3 ccs now and have hit my sweet spot. I can only consume about 1k calories a day, unless I drink alcohol. If you want to find out more you can always call Dr McKeen's office and meet with him individually. I did that and it really helped me. He is great. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Does anyone regret doing it? Can you drink alcohol? I'm two days away from making my appointment. Trying to get my mom to do this as well but she's afraid she will be miserable because she loves to eat.

Hi everyone, I'm having a hard time finding a chewable/liquid/ez-melt calcium/D3 vitamin that's (1) vegetarian or vegan and (2) with no added sugar OR sugar alcohol (fructose is OK). I haven't considered vitamin patches - but I have an allergy to adhesive (tape, bandaids), so that complicates things! I figured I'd ask here in case someone has any good calcium products they can recommend. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! xxx

I don't drink beer, so i can't answer this question, however, i do enjoy my sodas daily. . .diet of course. . so why can't you have carbonation ever? makes no sense. . . anyhow, i drink sodas, and alcohol with soda mix. . . love it and started drinking such (with doctors approval) at 3 months out. . . yes i said with doctors approval. . . and i'm out now 2 years and haven't died yet. . . hehehehe . . . good luck

It is easier to point the finger of blame than worry about what our OWN cell phones, air conditioning, gasoline, alcohol, cigarette, food, paper product, etc., comsumption is costing the earth... That makes me wonder...what kind of "burden" do cell phones put on the earth's resources...all that infrastructure...plastic...probably taking advantage of some underdeveloped country's labor supply, too....???

Thanks Dee, for your response. i too gave up sugary stuff for lent even though I'm no longer a Catholic. Somehow the discipline of lent from youth is still with me; stuff I couldn't give up in January becomes easier to give up beginning Ash Wednesday. Lately I've been reducing the carbs too. This morning my weight was 120.8, Hurray! I can eat more than I used to be able to, so I think it's important for me to concentrate on Protein and vegetables and to limit carbs. I'm back eating artificial sweeteners and though I don't think they are actually healthy, they are far better than the alternative. Sugar is such a drug for me. The sugar alcohols have side effects which is a good thing for me. I cannot eat a 100gr bar of SF chocolate because of the stomach cramps it causes. This means that my portion sizes are reasonable and not gluttonous--in the end a very good thing indeed. I think the weight thing will always be a struggle for me, but at least I have a chance of winning this battle now instead of trying my hardest and losing miserably. I feel pretty good of my protein-first diet. My BF and housemate are both on no sugar diets so I don't have loads of temptattion. My boy still eats sugar with abandon, but I can dismiss that more easily. Sugar now seems like pixie sticks or cotton candy--stuff you eat in your youth but wouldn't really ingest during adulthood.

Kymie, congrats on getting over the hump!! I'm just getting back in to groove too, first full day of tracking food was today, so nice to track food in the green zone. I'm not hungry, I'm not over full, I'm satisfied. Could I keep eating? Probably. Do I always eat the things I'm supposed to? No, but I always watch my protein and fat intake especially, and I'm slowly beggining to realize, back to the basics of counting calories is really what will control my head hunger. Not saying I won't take a break now and then, but to get over this plateau I've been stuck at for the past few months, I'm finding it encouraging. NJ2NC, welcome back girl! We have all been so busy this summer, and I'm really looking forward to fall, it makes me feel so motivated! The weather, the scenery, running around in a corn maze and not feeling like the "fat person"...love it!!! Meredith, so glad to hear about your little "mistake" I'm so happy it gave you the confidence to rock your interview! Chrissylu, hope the scale was good to you!! Savannah!!! You're so close! Whether it is one or two pounds, honestly, you have already won. Look at how far you have come!! I'm so proud if you, and I'm sure you're gonna look HOT on Halloween!! I would like to be in onederland by Halloween!! I love having a goal to work towards. Ladybandito, so good to hear from you! Sounds like you have been doing amazing, keep it up, you're not too far from your goal!! As for me, I'm still slightly above 220 daily. I may dip below for a bit, but right back up I go. Honestly, one thing I know has been contributing to my plateau is alcohol. I have a fun loving family, and we get together a lot in the summer...I always say I'm gonna have one drink, but you know what happens when you have one...there go my inhibitions. Another reason I'm looking forward to the end of summer, lol. As I was saying before, I am back to counting calories, and day one went well. Even if I do have a drink, I'm going to limit it to once or twice a week and allow it only if I have room in the calorie count for it. I would like to keep it to once a week because of what alcohol does to your metabolism...its pretty much one of the worst things you can do for your metabolism....that being said, I'm gonna be trading the cocktails for water more often. I guess ee all have our demons, and mine just do happens to be having a good time, lol. I'm planning on Leslie Sansones 5 miles tomorrow, wherever I can fit it in, and going riding too. I'm so grateful for you guys, I love having you here, to talk about a plateau, and get me through it. I can talk to my family, but let's face it...they didn't understand me and my eating habits before...so they aren't going to now. They try, but no one gets it like you guys do Although I've been stuck, pun intended, at the sane weight for a few months, maybe a loss of five lbs over the past three months, I've been getting more compliments then ever!! Someone at work even asked me if I ever eat!! I went shopping with my sister today and was able to just pick some things out, try them on, decided I loved them, and went on my way! Am I the only one here that used to buy clothes without trying them on, just so I could cry at home instead of in a dressing room?? On that depressing note, have a good night everyone I think this post is long enough!!!! ))

just beware of the ones with "sugar alcohols"......gives me rumbly bumbly stomach.........BAD GAS........don't do them at work............lolol Yep Pure Balance - Peanut Butter is my fav but the chocolate brownie is good too. Quest bars taste good but are super dense ....I find them better if I nuke them a couple seconds

I actually agree...I was a RX person...I liked the 'scripts. Mostly uppers though...before my band I battled addiction to Phentermine/Adipex (which is basically Meth in a pill). I had others that I liked too, but this was my fave EVER! I did pills for a long time (all through Jr. High and High School)...and I quit before I got the band...I have to admit the side effects SUCK! I STILL cant get as much done because the phentermine really messed up the chemicals in my brain to think that it needs that stimulation to work. Before I started taking them I could muster up enough energy to get stuff done and I slept normally....now 3 years sober from them, I STILL have to force myself to get anything productive done. I hate the feeling, and the only why to fix it, is to fight it...which you dont want to do because you just never have any energy that isnt generated by something else...i.e. your lazy all the time. The saddest part of all is the fact that I have NEVER taken a pill that wasnt prescribed to me, so all my addictions were to my own pills! What I dont understand is the companies that do a hair test for employment, I mean a female could have just been around pot at a party or something and inhaled some of the smoke and its in her hair until she gets that part cut off, which could take forever to grow! I mean she could have been around it a year or more ago and never been around it since, and still be refused employment....thats ridiculous! What should matter to employers (which I do understand WHY it matters) is if you have used it in the last 30 days or so, basically recently, and how much is in your system. I also think that there should be a quantity level just like with alcohol as to how much can be in your system before you are denied/terminated from employment. I used to be one of those people who HATED anything that had to do with pot, and couldnt stand it when I knew my friends were doing it....but I had a terrible misconception of what it did to people...I thought it was this terrible drug that made you do weird things and hurt people and stuff (like a hard drug)....but after going to a few parties and witnessing effects...I soon realized that these people didnt want to get off the couch, much less hurt someone or go psycho lol! Thats when I became tolerant of it, and I actually wouldnt mind it being legalized in some way...I mean Salvia is perfectly legal and is WAY more dangerous than weed.

I agree....that was a dumb post. In my opinion I would smoke mary J. before I would drink alcohol or eat crap after I get the band.

Little birdie toooooo funny!!!!!!!! We are all grown up we make choices and decisions about our lives every day. Working in the treatment field (drug, alcohol, mental health, gambling) I have seen many sad cases of abuse and dependance daily, yet I still drink on occasion. If it does not impact your life in negitive manner then to each his own. LOL

Hi guys just checking for the day. Work wasn't that bad in some ways I got to leave at 4:00 instead of 5pm so that was a plus. My boss ask when I thought Dr H might do surgery and said she isn't sure if she can give me time off before September. So I lied like any good employee would and told her it's most likely have to to be in the next 4-6 wks. He was afraid that it may cause problems if it wasn't. I should be ashamed of myself but I'm not. She doesn't have to know the whole truth. I can't wait for Billie and him to get back so I can find out if she has heard anything from my insurance company. Wes (my son) and I ate steak tonight. I wasn't going to eat corn on the cob with him but to be honest I did and I ate a piece of garlic toast. Go ahead and yell at me. I know it's bad but it did taste good. I guess I'll be on the treadmill later. I am having a lot of trouble being good now that I know my band isn't where it should be. Any suggestions? I also drank Diet Pepsi and it didn't hurt like I thought it would. I'd like to say it didn't taste good but it did. I can' t wait to get this band issue fixed I'm starting to get thoughts of crazy thinking going on. I guess I'll have to use my A.A. thinking to help me again. Just for tonight I won't eat anything else bad. By the way I am a recovering alcoholic. It's been 19 years since I drank. But my eating is beginning to have the same behavior and feelings as I had when I drank.. Sorry I'm so wierd guys I'll stop for now.

Omg, Tina, that is GREAT! Didn't realize you were dating! You SO deserve it. What would be BETTER is if hottie could take YOU for a date to the same place and you bump into the ex. Yes, I like to grind the knife when I stick it in. And then pour alcohol on the wound.

so...here come the emotional issues welling up...spoke to someone I'm very close to last night, who loves me, but also has a terrible way of making me feel unworthy. I've gotten much better at letting that stuff roll off my back and even calling him on it (with the help of therapy) but it rears it's ugly head now and then, and I think because I'm feeling particularly vulnerable right now, it's more apparent. This person congratulated me on already losing some 17 lbs or so..but of course mentioned that it was surely mostly water loss...so that's a dig right there. Then last night, same person asked how I was feeling and doing, and then had to mention they were at dinner at an Italian restaurant eating eggplant parm and it was delicious. Would you tell an alcoholic you were at a bar and downing a delicious cold beer? I would hope not. I told this person that his comments were not nice and there was no reason for saying what he did and he realized it was a cruel thing to do because he got embarrassed and tried to make a joke out of it. An apology would have been better. Anyway...just wanted to get that off my chest so I can let it go and move on. Thanks to you all for letting me vent in what feels like a safe place to do so.

Yes, you are right, its not just an alcohol addition that can develop, any addiction can develop. Thankfully the only addiction I've ever had is food and I sure don't want another one! Ever! Thank you for the comment because this is something I will be talking to my therapist about, even though the psych evaluation may address this.

So far, my experience has been a bit different than others on here: My surgeon told me alcohol was fine a month out, in moderation. I'm a month out now, and I had two margaritas (separated by quite a bit a time and ate an hour+ beforehand) with no ill affects, on Thursday. My tolerance seems about the same. Added to my calories for that day but it wasn't too bad. Had maybe 5 ounces of a mimosa (went minimal on the champagne b/c of carbonation and stirred it a lot) this weekend, and that went down fine. No pain from carbonation. I didn't try beer though - we only had bottled beer and even pre-surgery, that seemed too carbonated to me (compared to draft beer). Though I did take some gas-x before or after (don't remember) just in case. I haven't tried soda since - don't really want to! Used to love Diet Coke too much. Basically, it varies by surgeon. Ask yours about it.

I'm so sorry for all you're going through...my ex-husband was a horrible alcoholic. His "whore" was whiskey, he was abusive and terrible I finally got the courage to leave him, and it was the best thing I've ever done. (I kept wishing he's find a mistress...but, nobody else wanted him either!) I want you to know that I'm praying for your situation. I really hope that either way it goes, it's the best for YOU. I realize children are involved, but please don't stay in an unhappy marriage for only the children's benefit. They will know you're miserable regardless of how much you try to hide the fact. As far as calling the other woman's husband...please think long and hard about it. People are nuts, and quite frankly if she was crazy enough to call your BOSS she might be crazy enough to do something else. I just don't want you to put yourself or your family at risk. Take care.

I think it is time to admit that there are other additions going on in here right now, some are addicted to drugs, alcohol, food etc. but no one has mentioned the more dangerous addiction which is the addiction to chaos, the addiction to always cause a scene, complain, whine, talk louder and badder than the rest. Insult the rest of the world so ONE can feel better. Yes people this is an addiction as well, it is deep seeded and there is very little help except to recognize and walk away. Don't waste your breath, it does no good. There is no reasoning, just turn and walk away and the problem will disappear as if it never where here. After that....Toke on fellow smokers!!

That's probably the stupidest post I've ever read on here!!! First you compare smoking pot to smoking CRACK and then advise someone to DRINK alcohol over smoking pot .... I stopped smoking about a month ago because I was warned by my therapist that they will do a drug test with the pre-surgery testing, for the anesthesiologist. I've going to give myself about 2 weeks after surgery before I light up again ... I think I'm looking forward to that more than anything else :heh:

I agree that pot is better than alcohol. Unfortunately it’s illegal and my job does random drug testing. I am concerned about the smoking in front of kids, though. I’m also that way around drinking around kids. I’ve got neighbors who drink every fricken day and their kids just watch that. Same with weed – I wouldn’t see a problem with kids knowing about it, but if my babysitter decided to come over high I’d be pissed the same as I would be if they had a few beers beforehand. That said, I’m not sure why it’s illegal…anyone know? WTH – it grows natural!!! Oh, I would also like to add that it can be addicting…maybe not chemically, but neither is food – and yet I’m addicted to it. I have the same addiction to food that alcoholics have to alcohol. Behaviors can be modified by it and then we start craving the things that make us feel good. Again, not knocking it. All things in moderation, though – and not necessarily in front of kids. Whether you’re slapping around the wife, or getting so high you think your big toe is the funniest thing in the world. You got to have your wits about you sometimes, and getting high doesn’t help that.

I think a lot of people are very ignorant when it comes to smoking pot, let alone all other drugs (including alcohol, which is the worst). I think the reason that you don't seem to know or understand very much, is that they say when you start smoking pot, your brain stays at the same age as when you started. So Jimbo must have started smoking at age 12, because it seems like that is about as much as he knows.

I admit it...smoking weed is my vice, but I lead a very active, productive life. I have an awesome job, and a very fullfilling life. My days are long & my life is fulfilling & the fact that I just happen to smoke every once in awhile does not hold me back from anything I want in this life! It's a mindset. I'd rather smoke weed than drink alcohol any day. I admit, I love it & the only reason it is illegal is because it's such a money maker for the government to keep it illegal. Just another way for them to hold us down. I'm scheduled to be banded August 29th & was worried about being tested for marajuana use beforehand, but from reading this post it looks like I don't need to quit!

Oh, and no - I don't get nauseous w/ hospital smells... well sure, those hospital smells (!), but the smell of isopropyl alcohol will raise my blood pressure. I associate that smell with needles, and although I'm a little more desensitized to them now with the surgery & fills, there was a point in time where that smell was enough to get me light headed (because I strongly associate that smell with a particularly bad experience I had once, when a needle broke off in my arm during a blood draw, and I managed to douse the walls, nurse and myself before they could cover it & then work on getting the needle out... I never realized before then that the blood continues to come out even if the little tube isn't hooked up... I always thought the needle was just "there", but the tube somehow formed a vaccuum and SUCKED the blood out... silly ,but I was a kid... quite traumatic at the time, and sent me on my downward spiral of hating needles). BTW, since I'm bored at work, did I ever tell you guys that I had spinal meningitis? I had it when I was a newborn. Actually I was born a little over 2 months premature, and diagnosed when I was about 2 weeks old, so I had it before I should have even been born. They had to run something like 20 IVs in the fluid sac around my spine & brain, and do a LOT of spinal taps... enough that at one point they told my mom they couldn't do any for whatever amount of time, because I didn't have enough fluid to tap. My mom used to be as bad about needles as I am, but sitting with me through all of that cured her REAL quick!

I thought I would share some of what I have experienced so far. I am going throught the initial paperwork and labs/sleep study. I hope to be banded by November. I told my sister (who has always been too skinny). She said I should just not stock my refrigerator. I have a hubby and three kids. She has none. She also said that I should do a 12 step program and maybe check into a treatment program. It worked for her drug and alcohol problem. Like I can stop eating completely. My sister-in-law (who is a retired nurse) freaked out. I kept having to reassure her that I am not having gastric bypass. She now hounds my husband just about every day trying to make him promise to stop me. Like he could. :guess My girls are excited. Thank God for little kids. They think I am lovely no matter what. They got really excited when I told them I would eventually be able to fit on roller coaster rides. My husband and my dad were great. They just wanted to know what it was and make sure it is safe. :biggrin1: I have about 17 coworkers that have had the RNY. They think I won't lose as much. But one of our coworkers died last month after being on a vent for 5 months after the RNY. I am the only one I know of here that is getting banded. They are supportive but almost as clueless how to respond as anyone else. :tired All I know is that I am so glad I found this site. When my doctor asked me what my support system was I included Lap Band Talk, my coworkers and my husband. The funny thing is I think this site is the most helpful to me. I told hubby to keep the compliments coming, and say yes when I hit him up for plastic surgery. What a guy- He said OK.:clap2: