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Hi, Cheri. Good luck on your surgery. I had mine back in February '07. To date, I've lost 48 lbs. and I'm feeling so much better, and I still have 100 lbs. to go! Honestly, I think you have to be committed to changing the way you eat to maintain your weight loss over the long-term. The lapband will keep your portions under control without too much effort on your part. If you eat too much, you're going to feel uncomfortable, and unless you stick yourself with pins for pleasure you'll probably want to avoid that. However, Desserts seem to go through the band without any trouble. For myself, I've had to commit to limiting myself to one dessert a week. Sometimes it's a medium sized cup of ice cream at Coldstone Creamery, sometimes it's a piece of cake, BUT it's once a week -- no excuses. Believe me, the first 3 months that was hard, but now I don't think about chocolate everyday at 3:00 pm and then again at 9:00 pm. I've learned to substitute that stuff with a cup of yogurt and a 2 TBS of Go Lean Kashi Crunch, and I've even learned to enjoy sliced fruit in the afternoon. The short answer is that the lapband has worked for me and I believe I can keep the weight loss off if I don't make the choice to go back to my old habits. The lapband has curbed my hunger and lessened my desire to eat for the sake of eating. That's what the lapband is meant to do. It was a good decision for me. The problems are almost non-existent and when I have a problem it's because I'm eating too fast. PB's are not this huge, dramatic event I thought they would be before I had the surgery. Do yourself a favor and don't pay attention to that kind of talk. You can avoid them if you eat the way your suppose to eat -- small bites, chew well, eat slowly. If you do PB, you won't feel the need to call a doctor or run to the emergency room. Enjoy the journey.

Well hello all! Had my surgery on Wednesday. I feel fantastic. My hospital stay was wonderful (except for the "popping" shoes I had to wear in bed....To prevent blood clots.) The Nurse Practitioner who discharged me told me that I can work from liquids to baby food consistency. That's not what I learned when going to all the pre operative classes and that has really confused me. I've been doing fine with the clear liquids and have even had a Greek yogurt and a scrambled egg with no problems. The gas pain has at times been unbearable. I am 3 days postoperative and still feeling it. I have no saline in my band yet so I am having "hungry" issues. From what I understand it won't be filled yet for weeks so I will be living on protein shakes until then. I see the MD on Wednesday for suture removal so hopefully I will have more answers as to when they will begin filling my band and my growling tummy will begin to cease. Hang in there everyone,

Protein drinks 60 grams protein, greek yogurt 14 grams protein, 4 ounces fruit juice, low sodium broth, unlimited sugar free Jello, unlimited sugar free popsicles, Water, decaf tea or coffee. I didn't like most of the greek yogurts Fage was one I could tolerate, I would add my fruit juice to the yogurt and it tasted better that way. This worked for me and I lost 15 pounds on it.

- I felt the same way! all liquid all the time - makes me gag. so everyday I add something (I know I'm not supposed to) but I have a yogurt or sf jell or a piece of plain turkey. If not I would scream. I figure three days before surgery (which is this Monday 11/12) I will have nothing but a few shakes; water and clear broth. I can't drink 5 shakes a day - simply can't do it. Other people may be able to, but not me. Good luck everyone!

I was sleeved 11/15 in NJ. I had no nauseau or pain, sore of course, and the gas/reflux was pretty bad (get those Gas X strips!) but that was because they fixed a hiatal hernial. I'm doing really well, so far down about 11 lbs per my scale. I'm eating protein shakes, sf jello & pudding, plain/vanilla yogurt (non fat), I can have milk, oatmeal, pureed veggies, mashed potatos, broth or pureed soup, SF Ice pops, crystal light, tea, water, gatorade etc. The yogurt cup or jello/pudding cup is about a serving for me per meal. I'm doing fine, don't feel overly hungry, my body tells me when I need to eat and I'm listening to it. Supposed to get about 45-60 oz of liquid plus 70-85 g of protein per day.. I feel like all I do is eat and drink trying to get it all in! After 3 weeks of soft/puree foods, then I will move to more of a solid. I'm glad I did it, and I was a nervous wreck! Good luck to everyone having their surgery this week and in the coming weeks. It truly does get better every day.

Surgery date was 10/29. Down 21 lbs. Feeling pretty good. Can't wait until week #3 so I can eat tuna with mayo! Right now just pushing the water, can have a teaspoon of unsweetened applesauce, a teaspoon of mashed potatoes, or yogurt.

I had my surgery Wednesday and so far I can do sips of protein shakes had a Popsicle and a little yogurt. Later I'm going to try a little cream soup. My stage 2 foods are cottage cheese, yogurt, sugar free pudding, cream of soups (without the of part of the soup lol), soy milk. And I can still do stage 1 clear liquids water, decaf tea or coffee, sugar free jello, broths etc. I'm on these stage for he next 2-4 weeks depending on how thugs go and what my dr feels. I can't move on till he says it's ok. I'm also glad I did this and so far still don't really feel hungry at all.

I tried to start early and wound up throwing up in the parking lot of Whole Foods. So I am sticking to the rules! :-) Thanks for the good advice. I will stick to Soup and yogurt....

oh thanks so much. I spent my day relaxing watching tv and had a nap as well. Since in cake this year ( and to be honest I did miss it) I am treating myself to nonfat, sugar free frozen yogurt. Happy birthday to your daughter.

I was tired of the Protein shakes the day after discharge. I have tried yogurt, cheese and eggs, soup and today a little tuna, the jury is still out on the tuna. I also ate some Peanut Butter with half a banana. It gets old quick. My concern is that I am eating right at 4oz but haven't pushed it to see how much I can tolerate. I'm full after one bite of anything so it's hard to read my body as far as being full. Best of luck to you!! i know what you mean about reading the fullness. I know in early out but I find that even with purée foods in not sure when I'm full since I wasn't very hungry to start with. I am looking forward to eggs, cheese, and tuna.

No but I just had a very ripe fresh peach blended with SF peach yogurt. That was heaven. Banana would be good to.

Ms.sss, I'm nowhere near maintenance (2.5 weeks post-op) but love reading where everyone is at in their journey & so scanned this thread & now I've been thinking about it ALL DAY. I think you said it takes you an hour to eat a meal? And you're struggling to get above 800 calories? At 2.5 weeks it takes me 10 min to eat a meal and I could easily eat 1,000 calories. (I don't, because I'm trying to keep the calories as low as possible as long as possible). I guess I'm both fascinated that it takes you that long to eat & terrified of my own future if it's already this easy for me to eat this close to my surgery date. And I'm really curious what exactly you eat that takes an hour? Is it something dense? A half sandwhich? I I'm still in soft foods which are all so easy for me. Yogurt, eggs, veggies, ground meats, cheese. I can eat 4oz without issue. And I'm getting 65oz of water a day. I'm actually at 60oz of water & 600 calories today & it's only 6pm. I hope these questions don't sound rude because it's not my intention at all. I just can't get this off my mind. I scour these threads & see people saying they're 8 months out & can't get down a 1/4 cup of food & I'm like... maybe my surgeon only removed half my stomach because I am already more fine than I'd like to be. If that makes any sense at all.

I was banded 4/4...my dr sent me home on a liquid diet...i can have any liquids, including creamed soup, milk,yogurt, jello

Hi girlies! I am happy to announce I went to curves gym again last night, burned 434 calories according to their machine printout, it is personalized to you, very cool setup with the SMARTmachines. Stayed pretty much around the calories I wanted to stay under, did NOTget all my Water in however : ( TODAY: Walked 20 minutes on my lunch break already food for today so far: coffee with sugarfree vanilla carmel creamer (Delish) One boiled egg - Breakfast Midmorning snack: Light Yoplait yogurt Lunch: Progresso Light Beef Pot Roast Soup (1/2 cup) Hope you all are getting out and exercising like you want and tracking your food intake, need to post on FItday now... After work I guess. Plan to go workout at Curves again today. Gonna try to find my stepcounter and start wearing it to track my steps daily and set a goal for that. Good luck to us all! My goals for today: Drink at least 80 oz water Exercise at least 30 minutes at Curves and walk on the treadmill at home or walk the dog outside for 20-30 minutes. Track every bite that goes in my mouth (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) on fitday (that place is Flippin amazing and that it is free) Love that you can add your own customize foods to the list. Track here on this thread or just sit and read here when tempted to eat tonight when the food demons strike! Got me some 100-calorie mini bag popcorn for that time and will eat it s l o w l y to make it last.

Hi all... I just wanted to give some hope to someone out there. I've been in similar situations for over a year now. Had my band placed 3/07. Lost 45lbs... And Stopped losing... I tried eating healthy, leafy greens, lean Protein, lots of Water, but every time I pb'd I'd run for the Ben and Jerry's, or anything else that would slide down so that I could have a "meal". Yeah, I was hungry, but I probably could have done without another meal... So, I went to the doc to consider revision to bypass, and she requires 6 months with a nutritionist. So I've been seeing the nutritionist for 2 months, without a budge of the scale. I finally had to come clean with myself. Cut the crap out. No more Ben and Jerrys. I've read every single weight loss book on the market over the past 2 months. Digested all the info. None of the diets included ice cream. But I also didn't want to live a life of fat free, no sugar, no coffee, restrictions, and rules. Life happens. If I eat a donut, I don't want to care about it. Its the dozen I fear after a meltdown. So I basically wanted to revise my diet, not completely revamp. I went out and bought weight watchers ice creams, sugar free popsicles, and a protein shake from Arbonne that's super thick. I drink the shake for Breakfast. Snack is fruit or a light n' fit yogurt. lunch is 6" subway sandwich (of which I can only eat half) and Lay's Light potato chips (75 calories a serving). If I get the hungries around 3-4 pm, I eat fruit or another yogurt, or no sugar pudding. dinner is anything. A slice of pizza, chicken and veggies, big salad with protein, beef tenderloin, anything. After 2 hours I drink 3 glasses of water, or a couple cups of tea. If I still want anything after that, its weight watchers, sugar free, or lo-cal... To me, it wasn't a life altering diet, with 200 calories of this, or 5 points of that, net carbs, and such. I was just sick of the same old routine. Step on the scale, same number. Every day. Maybe I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it without revision to bypass. Maybe I gave up on food. Maybe just the evil food. Of course I guess you could say that I wasn't using my band for what it was intended... (by the way, I hate when people say that. use your band as a tool. I know, I know. Just stop lecturing already). So, with revised diet in place, in 1 week I dropped 6lbs. How does that happen? I guess when you stop eating a pint of Ben and Jerrys for dinner every night, you can drop a few pounds. I haven't even started seriously excersizing. All I do is ride my bike 2 times a week for about an hour. I don't want to preach to anyone. But I gave up. And I'm trying again. Maybe this won't continue to work for me. Maybe I will still revise to bypass. Who knows. But it'd be great to lose another 20 pounds before the bypass, if thats what I decide...

Thanks TexasMama! I usually don't eat anything after about 6 or 7 pm... Maybe I am not drinking enough water? I don't understand because it seems like the more water I drink the heavier I am the next day. I don't know what is up. I am eating 3 meals and 1 snack (usually a yogurt.) a day. I know the weight will catch up eventually, but I wish it would hurry up!!

I had a probiatic, FF yogurt and everything went whoosh by the time I finished it. It was also a great treat after all that liquid.

Hi, Surgery 7/30 Beginning Weight 224 Pre-op 215 Current 198 I'm pleased with the results so far but I wish I could comfortably eat something besides yogurt and the Protein drinks. I tried some fish tonight, tilapia, ate about 2 oz. It feels like the whole portion is sitting in my throat. I'm pretty miserable, really. I'm exhausted all the time and am totally constipated. And I feel like I need an antacid every three hours, when the prescription is for every 12 hours. Sigh. I am praying to feel remotely normal soon. I have so much to do and really, all I want to do is lay around. I haven't left the house in two days for more than 20 minutes. Sorry to complain, I know this is temporary. (God, I hope so!)

Today's PieHole Report: 1 cup warm h20 w/lemon 16.9 oz h20 B'fast: vanilla chai protein shake 1 cup tea w/1 splenda Lunch: Blueberry Yogurt Protein Smoothie (Judy got me thinking this sounded yummy... & it was!) Exercise: 30 mins on treadmill @ Y 16.9 oz h20 Snack: Tomato Soup & Low-Fat Triscuits Dinner: vanilla chai protein shake (later this eve) 1 cup hot tea w/1 splenda Totals = 1262.5 cal, 27 g fat, 147.5 g carb, 102.75 g pro

I am so jealous of some! For me, week 1 was liquids, week 2 pureed, week 3 soft, moist Protein. Week 4 I can finally add half cup nonstarchy vegetables and cannot add fruit until week 8. I am not even allowed Soups as my surgeon says it is liquid calories and he wants me to consume solid protein. No yogurt until six months! At this point I'd take Soup and yogurt. I was never really a meat eater before surgery and now that's all I'm allowed to eat! Ugh!

I was told by my nutritionist to start aiming for 100 grams of protein a day almost right out of the gate. Of course, it actually took me a few months to work my way up that high. I have two Protein Bars a day (one for Breakfast and one as an evening snack), a reduced fat string cheese for a morning snack, a greek yogurt with some kashi Cereal mixed in for an afternoon snack (only add the cereal on workout days), and then some sort of meat for lunch and dinner. Lunch is usually leftovers from a previous dinner and I try to always eat different meats for both meals (so never chicken twice in the same day or pork twice in the same day). My dinners are usually just the meat from whatever my husband makes. We usually split it in half, he eats his half along with his sides for dinner and I'll have half of my half for dinner and then package the other half of my half up for lunch another day. His sides are almost always grains or starches, though, so that doesn't help me with my vegetable predicament. So, to sum up, I get just over 65 grams of protein from the items I eat every day and then try to get 15-20 grams each from whatever my lunch and dinner are. On days I have my kashi cereal in my yogurt I get a little extra protein along with the carbs from the cereal to help fuel my workout.

I also have an egg foo young recipe and eggnog that are great, too. Cannoli Cream: 1 Cup of fat free ricotta 1 TBSP fat free/sugar free instant pudding mix (vanilla, cheesecake, etc…) 1/3 Cup of Water 1/6 Cup powdered milk 1/2 to 1 tsp. extract (vanilla, rum, almond, etc…) Blend all in a blender or bullet. Nutrition for the whole thing (it is actually 3-4 meals for me) Fat-0, carbs-17.5, fiber-0, Protein 25, Calories-185 Italian Sausage 1 lb. 93% lean groung turkey 4 minced garlic cloves and or 2 tsp garlic powder (depends on how much garlic you like) 1 1/2 tsp paprika 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp fennel seed (or more to taste) 1 tsp black pepper 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or cajun seasoning 1/8 tsp anise seed 2 tsp parsley 1 TBSP red or burgundy wine Mix all together and use in any recipes* that call for Italian sausage (I’ve fooled MANY people) If you like spicy Italian sausage, you can also add a pinch of red pepper flakes. It is great grilled for burgers or in lasagna. *My favorite thing to do with it is to flatten it into one large or several small patties, with a lip around the edge. Place on a sprayed baking sheet, top with your favorite low carb sauce, crushed tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, low fat or fat free cheese, veggies etc… Bake on bottom rack at 425* till it is done to your liking. It is a cross between a deep dish and meatlover’s pizza. Mashed Cauliflower: cook cauliflower then blend with immersion blender or bullet (they won't taste 'potato-y if you use a regular blender) Add laughing cow wedges, ranch powder, garlic, onion or whatever else you like. Protein Pancakes: Vanilla Protein Powder, baking powder, egg beaters till pancake batter consistency, cook like pancakes. You can also add plain FF Greek yogurt or FF ricotta. I'll post more recipes tomorrow, as I don't have them with me at the moment

It gets better! I went through the same thing. In reality, there really isn't much you CANT have in the long run. I had a little bit of Pasta but made sure I ate the chicken first. I certainly won't make a habit out of it but it's nice to know that if I want a small portion I can have it and it's not the end of the world. I still get repulsed by some foods at 9 weeks out. Yogurt is absolutely disgusting and I can't get it down even though I try. Right after surgery Protein shakes in all forms made me gag. It's much more pleasant once you get moved to real food.

I use genepro and I love it. I add it to my glass of milk, water or yogurt. Not bad at all and it had 30 grams of protein per scoop with 98 calories. 33 bucks at gnc.

Pre weight loss surgery I drank the International Delight creamers, and went through a phase of using half and half. Then when I began my weight loss surgery journey 9 years ago, I swapped out those types of creamers for cashew milk and always sugar free sweeteners like Stevia. To me it was creamier than almond milk. Now that I'm 7 weeks post op revision, I've switched yet again. Now I make 4 oz of strong coffee with a full reusable Keurig pod and add it to a Fairlife protein shake. I make them both hot and iced. Then I add complimenting sugar free coffee syrups to that if I want. I can't recommend these syrups enough! https://www.skinnymixes.com/ (I also add these to Greek yogurt, SF tea, SF lemonade, and I've read that some people add them to oatmeal, but I've not tried that, I don't eat oats very often) I'm sure you could switch to half caffeine and half decaf for a while if you want to slowly eliminate the caffeine from your diet. If you truly enjoy the benefits from a warm beverage, maybe eventually you can go straight decaf and use a protein shake so that a warm cup of coffee is beneficial to your diet and you ensure you reach your daily protein goals. That's what I do. I have two cups a day one in the morning and one in the afternoon, so that's 60 grams of easy protein a day for me. Best wishes!