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Teeli, when you go to your ticker just put your pin in and click on edit info and then a new page will open edit your info put your pin number in again and click next your ticker will be up dated and will update on all your posts.... You have lost such a good amount of weigh ..I can`t wait till I have too...But your right I am so happy to see the dial going down each week slow or not its a fantastic feeling....:tongue2: Good Night its late and I NEED my beauty sleep :wub: Chat later ...Marion

There are a few options for you this week with Dr. Abkin and Dr Bertha. On Wednesday the 22nd there is a New Patient Seminar at the HIlton Garden Inn in Rockaway NJ at 7 pm. Then Thursday NIght the 23rd they have another seminar at the Old Mill Inn In Basking Ridge starting at 8 PM. I will be there speaking at both of them and would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. There is also a Lap-Band Support group on WEdnesday the 22nd at the Dr's offices in florham Park starting at 7pm. All are great options however if you are just doing research at this point the seminars are a great place to learn all about the band. I will Private message you my phone number if you have any other questions. Alexandra Gorski

I'm not a Dec. Bandster, but I thought I could help! First of all...do some spring cleaning. Throw it all out. If you have kids or family that still wants them, tell them to put them somewhere you can't find them. If you have to go out and purposefully buy them, you are more likely to have a moment of sanity and put it back. I am going to copy and paste a post that I wrote for someone else. Maybe there is something in there that will help you. Are you ready for some tough love? If you are not ready at this time, that if fine. Put it away in your mind that someone has given you some and come back here when you are ready. By the time I get to post this you will probably have 100 other replies, but I want to take my time and post what I really want to say. Okay...here goes the tough love. And this will be a long post! Nope the Cookies were not a good choice, but you ate them and now you need to move on and NOT do it again. You can't change what you have done but you can make better choices in the future. So the question is HOW IN THE WORLD DO I DO THAT? Well I will tell you that the answer is NOT going to come to you when you have a "cookie" (will now stand for anything that is not healthy for us for the remainder of this conversation) staring at you in the face. You have to have the tools and the mindset BEFORE that temptation ever comes up. We have to be ready to turn around at any particular moment and have a piece of cookie shoved in our face and realize that we are stronger than the calories, fat, sugar and peice of inanimate object that we are looking at. It gets harder as we have lost the weight and become a little more comfortable with our bodies. At first we were hell bent on getting losing, losing, losing. Well the newness has worn off and now we are just stuck with the realization that we will always have to fight the "cookies". Alright I am all about being practical so here are some suggestions that I have. 1. Take a piece of paper (one that you can fold up into your wallet/purse/pocket ) and divide it into sections. You may have to write down everything and then rewrite it to get it to all fit. a. Write down all the reasons that you had MAJOR, LIFE THREATENING SURGERY. Not the reasons that you wanted to just lose weight, but what caused you to make this drastic change in your life. b. Write down where you think you would be health wise in 10 years. What disesases, illness would you have? What meds would you be on. Look at your family for "inspiration". For me my mom died at 53 weighing 350+ pounds and had heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea and a whole host of other disorders. Within 10 years, I was going to be there. c. Write down why you are more powerful than a cookie (this one is tough!) d. Find some typical foods that you would love to eat (your cookies) and look up the calories and then find out how much time you would have to spend working them off in the gym. e. Write down what about you makes you important enough to overcome your demons. f. Now you are going to want to fit all of this on a piece of paper in bullet form so when you are faced with you cookies you can look at it and allow you to mentally fight the war that has just come up. If you can justify eating that cookie after looking at your paper, then eat it, but have no regrets, and do not dwell on it. Instead you have faced the problem UP FRONT and not looked back on it. 2. Another possible tactic. I know that you are having a tough time getting your calories down. One thing that I have found that helps me is by eating the same foods that I like but with some simple substitutions and by finding ways to remove some unneccessary ingredients. For example. I make this dessert that had 1/2 cup of frozen berries, 2 TBSP of Cream cheese and 1/2 cup of granola. The cream cheese had 60 calories and I thought..."I wonder how this would taste if I didn't put the cream cheese in it". I tried it and guess what, I couldn't even tell that it was missing. Same thing with meatloaf. Instead of eating it with ground beef now I substitute grond chicken. As long as I keep all of my veggies and other healthy fillers in, I can't tell the difference. I really learned this from Subway. I found that if I went in and ordered a foot long sandwich (obviously pre-band) and got all this deli meat and cheese and then pilled it with my favorite veggies that I all I could really taste were the veggies anyways. So first I got rid of the meat and then the cheese, and the taste of the sandwich hardly varied at all. This is what I do all the time now. I will always fix something first and then think what can I do to lower or eliminate the calories without harming the integretity of the dish. 3. This is the one that everyone is going to hate. WE JUST HAVE TO HAVE WILL POWER SOMETIMES. Yep the age ol' dieting nightmare. (And believe me, I REFUSED to diet in my entire journey, so I use that word loosely) Our will power will not always be perfect, but we have to be able to stand up to ourselves and tell ourselves no. Before this surgery I couldn't tell anyone NO, including myself. So when my stupid head told me that I needed to go to Carl's Jr and get 2 big hamburgers and eat them in the 4 minutes it took me to get home so that I could look famished for dinner that was going to be served in 30 minutes...I never said no. NOW, I am comfortable saying no. It has helped me professionally, personally, and mentally. I thought that everyone would hate me if I said no, but now they no longer just expect things out of me. And I don't just give in to all of my brain's wishes. That is making me a better person. 4. Talk about your surgery. I have to honestly say that one of the greatest factors to my success is the fact that I have been open and honest about the surgery. I don't care what other people think about me. Go to 1A of this email and that should show you why there is nothing to be ashamed of. The more you talk about the struggles and successes of your surgery the less likely people are to shove food at you. We have one lady in our science department that brings in treats every week. After the 2nd week of school I told her about my surgery and not ONCE has she come in and offered me the food. She told me, if you ever want it, you may have some, but I don't want to push something on you that you obviously don't want. Yesterday at the staff meeting, the administration gave little food baskets to everyone for all there hard work during scheduling. However instead of a food basket I got a nice card signed by all the administrators, because the know that a food basket is pointless to me. I don't feel singled out, I feel very blessed that these people care enough about me to know what I need. Some people can't make these connections on their own and they need you to school them. Iknow this is tough, but I had to do it with my dad, my BF, and my brother. I asked them if they would offer a beer to a recovering alcholoic. All of them said no, and then I said then why in the hell would you offer me a cookie! If there is any advice in here you don't like. Think about why you don't like it. Is it because it is hard...well guess what CHANGING is hard, but maybe just try part of it. If you don't like it because it goes against all of your moral beliefs, then ignore it. I will never know and it will not hurt my feelings. Even if you came back and said "Salsa you are full of crap and are an idiot" I would think " her loss!" and keep on lovin' ya. This is what friends are for. We have to be here during the good times and the bad. We have to be able to look (or type) at the other person and say "stop being an idiot" If we don't do that as friends, really we are no better than an enemy.

:tt1:every 2 days it'll get better and after a couple weeks will be a lot better..until now enjoy clearing the room. haha

Hi Brighteyes, I have the same feelings with the full liquids and solids too. I am hungry alot but the key is to eat healthy foods. That way, even if you eat too much, it is still ok. I too wonder about feeling full, but I have to say that I had an egg this morning, over easy and it is doing the trick. Try cottage cheese (i know, eww) but it is filling. Also, in the health section of the grocery store are these soups in a cup that you add boiling water. They are called fantastic big soup and there is a flavor called jumpin black bean and it is totally awesome. It is good for 2-3 meals cause it is like 24oz and is packed with protein and fiber. Also, their split pea is good too. Pastina is a treat on mushy week and yogurt drinks too. Also, try a spoonful of peanut butter, eaten very slowly. That fills you up too. You are doing very well. Before you know it you will have a fill. Good luck

I had my first fill today after my Dec 18 surgery. I am sore at the stent area and some in my back, but not really bad. It was a painful but not unbearable experience. Good thing, as I will be doing this many more times in my life! Now back to liquids only for 48 hours. Doctor said I can eat any foods I want to now with of course the limitations that go along with the Band.I am about 3 weeks post surgery and have done fine with very small amounts of shrimp cocktail and grilled chicken chewed many many times.So far, so good. The doctor said I am doing well and I am about 20 pounds down from the first day of pre-op shakes.This is my first time responding to anything but I have been reading and benefitting from these forums for several weeks.

3.5 pounds a month is nearly a pound a week and there is no shame in that. You may just be a slow loser. As long as you are going down, at any rate, you should feel good about that. Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on what you should eat and how tight you should be. I say, keep on keeping on! I'll be cheering for you!

My surgeon said that the liver is the first place that your body puts on weight, so I would presume that just about anyone who is overweight has a fatty liver. He said that makes the liver hard, and therefore more difficult to work behind for the surgeon. But he said it is also the first place your body burns the fat from, so the 2-week pre-surgery diet was to burn off that fat and give me the "liver of a skinny person" and make his work easier.

Just to update, I did call the Dr and was able to get in today instead of on Jan 7 for my follow-up after my Dec 3 fill. I was able to eat over the holidays and did eat more than I should have. I was so afraid to step on his scale this morning. I thought for sure I would have gained 3-5 pounds but, to my surprise, I was down 1 pound. It doesn't make sense to me that I lost because I know I ate more than I had been eating right after surgery but I'll take it and run with it. My Dr is very conservative with fills he tells me so he added .75 to my already 3.5 filled band. So, I'm at 4.25 right now. He wanted to see me in 6 weeks so, I guess I'll see how this one works out. Happy New Year! I'm excited for this new start.

Hi Lanie , My fills have all gone really smoothly. The Dr. gets me on the first poke. There is a weird sensation when he removes the needle. It doesn't hurt, just feels weird feeling a tug coming from the inside. i've had 7 fills so far. After the 5th one I lost all restriction, but we have figured that it wasn't leaking. i think the saline spurted out when he removed the needle. After the 6th and 7th tho' my restriction is definately back. My dr. tells me not to eat or drink after mid-night the night before a fill, and says to do only liquids for 24 hrs. after in case it's too tight. That way things won't get stuck. I know this sounds weird , but when I eat a pineapple/banana blizzard from dairy queen I will usually lose a pound or two. I guess it boosts my metabolism since I eat so little. i can't eat bread, fries, etc. The DQ people probably think I am the "crazy blizzard lady" 'cause I'll go there at least 2 - 3 times a week and always order the same thing !lol !:cool: One of my past students usually waits on me tho' and when I told her how much I've lost so far, she was really surprised. Now we just laugh when I order. I guess we all have to do whatever works for our bodies.

:thumbup:... My first day with the clear liquid diet... I made it through but was really rough toward the end of the day. I am not looking forward to the next week! Talk about panic attack.

Hello fellow fab-forties - I am having my first fill on Thursday and I am excited/hopeful. I had a really nice drop the first two weeks and then got stuck at 273.6 for almost two weeks. My nutritionist thought that maybe I was eating too little....man I have never heard that before. I was around 800 cals per day. Over the weekend I bumped up to 1100 per day and went up two pounds. Any body else have this experience? How will things change after my fill? What is your typical daily intake? I do at least 35 minutes of aerobic exercise per day: swim, walk, weigh lift, elliptical. Thoughts please… Lanie

I am down exactly 40lbs! This is including my 1 week pre op diet! So excited for the future! 60 more to go!

I have an appointment with my MD to talk about lap band next week. Has any one used a dr. in Anchorage? What about insurance? Anyone use Great west?

I had my first fill on Monday the 8th 5cc in, she said my band holds 10cc .. I feel nothing Kind of SAD She told me to come back in 2 weeks if im still hungry

I've also heard the sweet spot is when you're losing 1-2lbs a week. Yvonne x

I made an appointment to see the doctor a week before for the initial consult. During that meeting, he pulled out his blackberry and showed me which dates he had available for surgery. I could have gone 5 weeks from then, but chose a later date to fit my schedule.

I was thinking today about how I was eating a couple of weeks ago verses how I am eating today, Day 7 of my pre-op diet. Yesterday I was counting my calories for the day, and realized I had consummed less calories in four days (averaging 650-800 calories a day), than I used to eat in one day. A couple weeks back I was mainly think of the pre-op diet, and first few weeks of the post op diet.... now I'm starting to think past all that... and the lifestyle change. Anyone else been looking further down the road too? John

I was sleeved Monday the 21st. I haven't eaten anything jello or broth since Tuesday. I can't stand the smell or taste of them anymore. I'm so ready to move to full liquids on Sunday! I'm 10lbs down since surgery and 17 since my 1 week pre op diet.

Hello Andy. I also get banded on Friday! Yae for us!! I just joined these forums last week. And I have to say the people here are awesome. There is so much good information, and positive words. We all need all the support we can get. Good luck to you. We will have to keep in touch with eachother!

Liz, When I was cleared to start exercising and doing any activity that I wanted to do, my family went bowling. At some point during the game, I felt a pain in the area of my port (I was using a heavy bowling ball that day). As the day progressed, the pain seemed to spread into my back and shoulders also. I learned on LBT about a woman who had torn her sutures that held her port in place by reaching for something and I was afraid I had done that too. I went on disability at home and did very little and did absoutely no lifting or vacuuming, sweeping, etc. The pain lasted for a week and then slowly subsided. I actually think that I pulled a muscle in my stomach or back because once it went away, I never had it again. As for the acid problem, I had this until I was about 6-8 weeks out. If the pain gets worse or lasts longer than a few days, you should call your doctor because you might have torn some stitches or something else. I hope this helps you and good luck in your healing!! Tricia H

Yaaaa! That's a lot of stones! Curious-what is a stone equivalent 12 lbs. more or less? I can't wait to be back to my normal life and routine! Post-op 2 weeks today for me snd I thought I'ld be feeling a hell of a lot better than I do! I returned to work Monday -too soon, I set my recovery back at least 5 days by doing so! Back at home resting-I'll try again this Monday! Glad you're feeling better. One day at a time!

Sorry about your loss! I too found myself emotional eating this week (albeit for different reasons)- at least you recognize what you are doing and are looking for alternatives. I agree with previous post exercise is a good pick me up- you feel great after too instead of guilt.

I food prep for the week but since surgery i am Finding that I make too much for my family and often have to throw food out. Part of the problem is we are not always eating the same thing so I still cook as though I am feeding 5 people in stead of 4. Anyone else find this an issue? And if so were you able to eventually stop over preparing as tome went on? How many you vets still food prep???

So I am almost finished with my first week of mushies on a two week mushy post op diet. I found some brown rice sushi rolls with crab in it that is to die for! It mushes up just perfect. Has anyone else tried these? I found mine at Trader Joe's and they come in a little six pack. I though 4 would equal a cup but it looks like 8 will take you to just a little over a cup. I found I can only eat about 5 comfortably. I hope this isn't too much carbs but I highly recommend it. I also had a Mexican Quiche from Trader Joe's today and just ate around the crust. Yummy! Anyone know if sushi is something I shouldn't be eating? I haven't had any trouble with it going through the band.