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...I was a vegetarian for 7 years.....and I was the ONLY fat vegetarian I ever knew.... God did this make me laugh out loud and I really needed it tonight. I was a vegetarian (ovo/lacto) from 1987-2001 That is whan I GAINED all of my weight. I have all four Lindy McCartney books and I really impressed people with my "veggie" cooking. No wonder, I allowed myself all manner of butter, cheese and cream because after all I wasn't eating meat and we all know how much fat that has............. So I didn't have grilled meat and salad I had 4 cheese lasagna and why eat a smoked turky sandwich when I could have a fried eggplant sandwich with extra cheese???? I still don't eat red meat but I do eat fish and chicken. I was a vegetarian because of ethical issues and I admire those who have made the commitment and live the life. I have only been banded for 4 months and I follow the Drs. advice of "protien, protien, protien" Right know if I took out the meat all I can think of is slim fast shakes and Beans, and most of us who are banded have a "special" relationship with beans. When I get to my goal weight I plan on giving up chicken but keeping the fish. Maybe I will be inspired to make the commitment again to be meat free. I hope so.

I have just begun to research this proceedure. I was wondering if anyone knows if vegetarians do well with this? Also, I need to lose 40 pounds and am worried that I will be turned away because I am not actually considered "obese". I am desperate for this surgery and would appreciate any feedback.

Hello again everyone and thanks for the welcome!! Let me tell you a little bit more about me, so you know who you're talking to! I'm 37, happily married for 9 years to soul mate (whom I met online, BTW!) and I have two amazing sons (2 1/2 and 10 weeks!). I'm a veterinarian and until now, I have worked full time but my husband just got offered a position full time at Sirius Satellite Radio - his dream job - the DAY we brought our newborn home from the hospital! So, now that he has benefits, I get to work part time!! YAY! I'm very excited! I haven't gone back yet from maternity leave and I'm really enjoying being a stay at home mommy, at least until April 23! I'm also a vegetarian and a huge animal lover. I volunteer time and money to several causes, including the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, where I'm a team captain every year for their annual Light the Night walk in the fall. I "met" a woman online who lost her daughter to leukemia at only 9 months old, just after I had my first baby, and it really hit me hard so I've been involved ever since (www.friendsofheroes.org). As for banding, my best friend of 24 years told me in January that she was considering getting banded. I didn't know anything about it. I was pregnant and miserable and didn't even give it a thought. Fast forward 6 weeks after baby is born, we talked about it and I realized I wanted to do it too so we have embarked on this journey together!! I was a chubby kid, got skinny as a pre-teen, chubby as a teen, extremely thin when I was about 20 (good gods, I was 140 pounds!! Imagine that!!!), got chubby again in vet school, got thin again on Phen-Fen (I admit, I LOVED THAT STUFF!!!). I met my husband at 156 pounds in 1997, got married in 1998 (we were engaged 10 weeks after we met!) and got FAT! Somehow, I now weigh 291 pounds and I can't quite figure out how that happened. I have two babies but I can't really blame it all on them because I was 250 when I got pregnant with the first one. I lost a baby at 22 weeks gestation to severe birth defects and that was really hard, and I gained 30 pounds with that pregnancy. So, I am desperately in need of some help and I'm hoping the band will provide that help! I have lost enough weight in my life enough times to know what to do, I just can't seem to do it long term. Hopefully this will be the time! I'm excited at the thought of being in Onederland again!!! HOWEVER, we have only just started the process! I met with the nutritionist and have been to a seminar. We are going to use Dr. Bertha in Morristown Hospital. We will be meeting with him on Wednesday and the nutritionist for our follow up on Friday of next week. I have my psych appointment on 4/27 and then I guess it's all up to the insurance because I can't afford to self pay! I have BC/BS so I'm HOPING approval won't be a nightmare! My friend and I are hoping to have surgery the same day!!! I had blood drawn today and the H. Pylori breath test, so that's another hurdle jumped! So, that's my life story in a nutshell! I don't get online too much, maybe once a week if I'm lucky but I'll try to check in whenever I can! Take care!

I was a vegetarian for nine years. After I became one I had to tell people to stop worrying about it because I'd manage to find a way to eat and not starve to death. I managed just fine... Of course some people did worry more than others. When DH and I started dating he would look for food for me before himself. I figure the band is similar. I just have to tell people to stop worrying. I went out pretty recently after I got banded to a restaurant. I ordered milk and mixed in some unjury. No one cared. If YOU can handle eating differently then everyone else needs to get over it too.

We have lots of sausages.. but yes, our Breakfast sausage is a fatty greasy thing of yummy goodness. We do have the breakfast sausage links that are much like normal sausage, but tastes like our breakfast sausage 'patties'... I've never been to a butcher, well.. I guess grocery stores 'fresh meats' are from their butcher, so that might count. Another sausage we have, which I think would probably be like yours, and my favorite.. Are the big meal sausages.. Bratwursts are my favorite, grilled on the grill.. mm..with saurkraut and mustard. I'm definitely not a vegetarian, I love meat! I'll have to check out those brands though, the chicken filets sound good, but is it fake meat?

I think I'm wanting to go all the way with this new lifestyle. I want to eat raw and whole foods, become a vegetarian (maybe), exercise religiously, etc. Is there anybody out there who feels the same way? I don't want to just eat everything, but in moderation. How do I get there and still get enough protein and frankly enough calories if I have to chew chew chew a bunch of raw veges?

Yes those Morningstar farms buffalo wings are great. I am a vegetarian (weird but true...a fat vegetarian, go figure) and eat lots of fake meat the benefit is soy high in protein. If you can tolerate the sausage, (I can't) then you will probably like this stuff its great- in the produce section is Smart Chili in pouches, wonderful.

SF jello pudding; homemade SF custard feels very warm and soothing on a new pouch. Yogurt, cottage cheese (small curd)....mix a little SF jelly in it; refried beans (vegetarian) ricotta cheese (mix a little spaghetti sauce in it to make it tasty); well-cooked cauliflower (mash it up).

Sunshine1 you are doing awesome!!!! I'm soooooo jealous! We were banded on the same day and I have a lot more weight to lose than you. Very proud of what I have lost....just wish I was doing as good as you! I agree with restriction without losing a part of normal every day eating with out PB'ing. Met a lady at the Dr.s office the other day who is (and wants) restriction so tight she can't eat meat. Not me, just want tight enough to live life like most normal people! Plus, we're farmers who raise our own beef....husband would probably divorce me (kidding!) if I became a vegetarian! Anyway, you're doing great...keep up the good work!

ok, so i'm beign banded monday morning and this weekend wait is killing me. too much idle time to let my mind wander and it's affecting my sleep (or lack thereof). doesn't anyone else post about their freak-out stage or am i alone on this? list of random ramblings: 1. must eat everything in sight before sunday morning. once awake i'll be on liquids until i reach the mushie stage. 2. i am terrified of the unknown me. my size is my identity (we'll leave it at that because it would take until monday to get into all my therapy history.) What will i look like at a normal weight? what kind of clothing style do i have? i've shopped so long and chose what I liked/fit me versus what i would choose if i could wear anything i wanted. (i'm leaning toward the LL Bean - eclectic yoga/herbalist look ). 3. i know i'm going to go through a HUGE food mourning stage. the hardest will be ice cream and sweets. fortunately, i like vegetarian cuisine and mediterranean foods. food is my friend, dammit. i'm very curious to see how i handle stress sans food. thank goddess i've learned to meditate! 4. mega afraid to say something stupid while under.:speechles my surgeon is rather hot! 5. not too worried about the dying on the table thing. however, i will be paranoid for a few days about slippage, erosion, gremins eating my band ( ), etc. i have a tendancy for the dramatic! Ok, now for some routine questions: 1. just how naked are you on the table? can you wear socks? were you able to get into jammies once in your room? 2. do you get a cath before anesthesia? 3. does the iv stay in overnight or just a few hours after surgery? thanks for reading this let alone answering any of my ramblings. aaaarggghhhhh.....i wish it were 6:00am monday morning!

Actually, if you would have read my posts more thoroughly you would see that I am not from the south. I am from Kansas. I stated that his familyhad just moved here from Alabama. Additionally, in another post, I stated that he doesn't know our situation and I do not know his and I decided to just leave it at that. His past experiences may have led to that statement, and I understand that. Even then, it was not appropriate to say that to someone. It really caught my husband off guard to think his boss feels that this would be something he would be concerned with. It has now created a little bit of discomfort between them I think. As for how he is treated here, I am not sure. We live in the only consistantly blue county in Kansas. It is an extremely liberal town. The town is full of all races, ethnicities, sexualities, and religions. It is also full of vegetarians, vegans, and hippie types. It has a University, so it is very diverse. The area is very accepting as far as I can tell he probably receives less "looks" here than he did in Alabama. But I am not a minority, so I can't say for sure.

Hi Angel, I do so hope everything goes smoothly for you with the removal of the band, and the delivery of your baby. It is fantastic that another band doc was willing to help you. I read on this site all the time about doctors refusing to take on other doctor's patients. This especially happens in the United States of litigation! Bronnie, how are you? Try not to stress to much. Swallowing problems in MS only really happen to patients with long standing disease namely primary progressive MS.These patients have a very high lesion load in the brain especially. It is unlikely to occur in patients such as ourselves that have RRMS. Yay I say! I ate my first sushi handroll today!:biggrin1: I chewed it really carefully, and it took me 30 mins to eat, but I feel my life is worth living now. I am not really eating much meat. I am not a vegetarian, I just have never really eaten a lot of meat. I like minced beef and chicken sometimes. I like tofu and fish, and chickpeas and beans, more than meat. Susannah

I was also raised pretty strict catholic and every friday we would have fried fish sticks and tator tots and a can of vegetables. My dad hated/hates fish and the only kind he would eat was those damn fish sticks - of course they were fried and i LOVED them. The rest of the week we ate meat, potatoes and a can of veges - oh yeah and an iceberg lettuce salad occassionally. I didn't even know other veges existed until i was in college and also became a vegetarian - i was sick of meat and could easily be a vegetarian again. As a child I was addicted to sugary cereals as that was our daily Breakfast - i can't even have Cereal around me to this day - After reading sugar busters and eating macrobiotically for a time I tried sharing some info with my dad:heh: and u can imagine how that went over - he said 'all you kids ate cereal your whole life and nothings wrong with you" Well here I am - banded, my brother has had gastric bypass - my sister is on her 100th time at Weight Watchers - you get it! Today lapbandtalk has given me a valuable lesson and Bubble Butt says it best - rethinking what I always believed or I always justified. I am meditating on that and going to make some serious changes in my behaviors and take some different actions. Thanks again.

"Everyone knows vegetarians are communists." Hint: It's from a current TV show, not a movie.

You know puberty and breast development in particular was sort of scarey for me because of how much they grew. First of all I was the third tallest girl in the entire fifth grade (and at that age girls tend to be taller). Then junior high happens and so does puberty. So these boobs start growing and I have to learn how to do everything with these things in the way now... Seriously LOL. It made playing the flute and PE and all sorts of other basic activities more difficult. Then two years later in the eighth grade I was up to a D cup. And I was 5'6' then and probably about 170-180 pounds. And these things on my chest hadn't showed any signs of slowing down and I honestly thought that maybe I would have to get a wheelbarrow for them or something. But then they did finally stop growing and I was still able to walk upright so it was ok except for some blouse fitting issues I still struggle with. And I don't know about obesity or many hormones.. I was overweight but not super overweight. And I became a vegetarian in Junior High but the boob growth didn't stop with that and I rarely ate eggs growing up because I've always disliked them intensly...

Hey, this thread is an interesting one, isn't it? Wavy, the 120 grand looks extra big to my eyes because I am a Canadian and our dollars are mini-dollars. And even in Can bucks a 120 grand is nothing to sneeze about. It won't buy you a house in my city but it will give you a down payment and that is, as Martha says, "a good thing." And your wedding, pierced, sounds great. Good food, a laid back environment, and a laid back bride and groom - what more can any guest want, eh? Even though I didn't want to get married, I just wanted to live with my man, my one official wedding was pretty good. We had a buffet so that everyone, even the vegetarians, could find food that they would enjoy. My (then) husband was a musician and a number of his friends played at the wedding. They were talented guys and they played a lot of jug band music along with the standard rock stuff. The bar was open and that is always a hit. It seems that my father was approached a number of times by the staff; they wanted to know if he wished to close down the free bar but he said no. As for me - the bride - I wore a tobacco brown velvet suit with hip high suede boots. I wanted something that I could wear again and the wedding took place in February. I also threatened to carry a cauliflower up the aisle in my bouquet. I said that I could cook it later. I was a practical kid! I wore the boots and the velvet jacket, they both looked great with jeans by the way, until they rotted, and then I threw them out. Shortly after this I threw the husband out. :phanvan I got married when I was 22 and the marriage collapsed when I was 27. Oh, and by the way, the reason we got married was because it meant the world to my then husband's family. My family were atheists and would have been entirely comfortable to see us live together. His family were Catholics and our marriage meant a lot to them and so we were married in the Catholic church. And at this point I will mention, as I always do, that I was treated with great respect by the Church.

http://wwrecipes.jodiness.com/mainmeal.htm ENJOY

I like the chili idea cuz i prepare it in the crockpot so I'm not crazy in the kitchen when everyone comes and prepare a variety of toppings for everyone to chose from - onions, jalepenos, cheeses, olives, lettuce/shredded, tomatoes, and then maybe spaghetti(some like to top with chili) and some tortillas. I can also eat chili pretty well so I don't have to worry about pbing, etc. And, you can make a vegetarian version and meat version as needed. have a good time and don't stress too much is also my advice! Also i immediately checked out wheetsin's crustless pizza and i'm trying it tonight - girl you can cook

This is a great clone recipe, really good. If you want to cut out most of the fat substitute ground turkey for the ground beef. If you want to make it vegetarian exchange the meat for boca burger meat. Wendy's Chili 2 lbs ground beef 1-29 oz can tomato sauce 1-29 oz can kidney Beans (with liquid) 1-29 oz can pinto beans (with liquid) 1 C diced onion (1 medium onion) 1/2 C diced green chili (2 chilis) 1/4 c diced celery (1 stalk) 3 medium tomatoes, chopped 2 tsp cumin powder 3 Tbls chili power 1.5 tsp black pepper 2 tsp salt 2 C Water Brown ground beef in skillet over medium heat, drain off fat. Using a fork crumble the cooked beef into pea size pieces. In a large pot combine the beef plus all the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook, stirring every 15 minutes for 2-3 hours. Makes 12 servings. Leftovers may be frozen for several months.

Agreeed about the warm drink first thing in the morning..I won't even try to eat until after a couple of cups of Matrix chocolate in my coffee or straight (Matrix is a wonderful chocolate). I also drink hot tea with orange cream Matrix in it. Micellar Milk is delicious.....40 grams per carton (it's not real milk) and it's good hot or cold, straight or in coffee/tea or flavored up with SF syrups like Torani or Davinci. No excuse for not getting good tasting Protein. I'm not much a meat eater but I have no trouble getting 100 grams/protein a day every day and love every gram of it!! (and I've lost 120 lbs in 11 mo) They are starting a vegetarian recipe section to incorporate high protein on www.bariatriceating .com - they test all their recipes and you can get feedback from others and wonderfuls support there.

No, you certainly didn't mess up! I was a nervous freak about this in the beginning and my doc set me straight. He said as long as you don't eat until "stuffed" and the food was nutritious then you're fine. Cream of Crab soup probably had a lot of calories (cream) but other than that it beats the heck out of ice cream or something ridiculous!! Yes, I ate a lot of oatmeal in my mushie's stage. Oatmeal is great for you...just eat the kind you cook on the stove. The pre-packaged stuff has too much sugar and isn't usually as nutritious. I also ate vegetarian refried Beans a lot. Cream of Wheat, sugar-free pudding, oatmeal, refried beans, chilli, low fat cottage and ricotta cheese, low fat yogurt, etc. these things were all foods I ate during mushies. Oatmeal and refried beans were the two foods that made me feel satisfied the most. They stick to your ribs and make you feel like you've actually eaten! I think you're doing great and have not done anything "wrong" at all! Good luck and keep us posted!

I eat a lot of veges, I love my meat, but it is still possible to get in all your protein and vitamins in with a band. I think most vegetarian food is band friends other than noodles and rice, some bandsters have problems with those.

I am not a vegitarian or vegan but I am sure you could do it. I have gone a couple weeks with no meat. Infact I have gone all my pre-op and all of my post-op so far with no meat (although post-op I started back on dairy). I get my Protein from Beans and lentils in my well blended Soups. Try searching for vegan and vegitarian posts I am sure there are some out there. In fact I did find one for you if you want to check it out. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/any-vegetarians-here-t13193.html?t=13193&highlight=vegitarian

I have been a vegetarian, now I just don't eat red meat. A veggie diet is definitely doable. My diet still consists largely of tofu dishes, garden burgers, and beans.

what's on ur menu? just wondering if a vegan or vegetarian menu is healthy with a lapband.