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MONICA, I just want to let you know I feel for you and wish I knew words of encouragement to share, but I'm new with the band. I get my first fill later this month and over the last few days night grazing has been my down fall, but one thing that stops me from not eating sweets is not having them in my house. I don't need ice cream, pies, candy bars so no one in my house does either so my grazing goes to and extra something of protein yogurt or cottage cheese or plain cheese. I sometimes put this in my hand and put it back down and then I tell myself good job even though 10 min later I maybe doing the same thing. Just let yourself know that every day is a new day and everytime you don't put something in your mouth when you really really want to tell yourself good job and be strong. best of wishes to you.

It isn't official until tomorrow but I have lost 50 lbs!!! I am pretty excited about that... seems like a pretty good milestone! Today: B: blackberry carbmaster yogurt with half a tiny banana L: seriously don't remember eating lunch today... humph D: about a tablespoon of each- roasted chicken, roasted butternut squash, a wedge of roasted potato, 3 roasted baby carrots, and homemade stuffing (with apples, pecans, raisins, sausage, celery, onion etc) Looking at my menu in black and white here I am a little concerned about my Protein intake today. Must do better tomorrow.

I had a good moment yesterday! I made it to onderland! 199.7-finally. B- Zonebar S- yogurt L-leftover dinner from japanese restaurant (shrimp,steak,chicken,) probably about 4 oz S-seroogy's meltaway bar -oops D-Subway salad-all the turkey and 1/2 the veggies

Hi everyone! I am not sure what I was doing yesterday not to post my food. I will try to remember what I had... has my memory been banded too?? LOL Wednesday: B: blackberry carbmaster yogurt with a quarter of a banana L: half meatball on a parmesan crisp D: other half of meatball and green Beans It was a really bad, stressful day at work. Ugh. Thursday: B: unjury shake with 1 T. Peanut Butter L: worked through lunch... didn't eat until 4pm had 3 club crackers with chicken salad and 4 potato chips D: I wasn't hungry since I ate at 4. So at 7pm I had a carbmaster yogurt. Exercise: 30 minutes on my glider! YAY! I exercised! WOO HOO! (how sad that I practically want to give myself a medal for finally exercising!)

HI everyone... REALLY struggling here! Snacking like crazy. Fill appointment is January 21st. Not a SECOND too soon. Ugh... I have been craving a big mac for weeks now and I think I have eaten all sorts of other junk instead of just having what I really wanted. Sooooo... B: usual shake L: half cup chicken salad, carbmaster yogurt Snacking: handful potato chips with dip, a one inch piece of dark chocolate D: a third of a big mac (minus the bread), 4 french fries Ok, hopefully that is out of my head now and I can just try to hold steady until my fill...

Hello all... Today- B: a third cup of chicken salad- wasn't in the mood for Breakfast foods L: 1 square of thin crust pizza (cheese) with a blackberry carbmaster yogurt D: half a panko breaded tilapia fillet (baked) and 5 baked sweet potato fries Today is my 3 month bandiversary. My husband took my 3 month picture. wow... VERY sore today! My arms and chest were incredibly sore. Plus, I have a HUGE bruise from my flu shot. I felt like I wasn't in control of my muscles today.. it was kind of funny. Definately made cleaning my house a challenge! Oh, I bought the new Biggest Loser Wii game with both Bob and Jillian. My plan is to try it out tomorrow. It is supposed to work with the balance board. I am excited because it has some yoga in it. I have terrible balance. I really want to work on that.

Before I was banded I ate fast food for lunch every day. Since I have been banded it has been easy to pack my shakes during the liquid phase, and some cottage cheese and apple sauce and yogurt for lunch during the mushy stage. I'm now moving on to solids and I am at a loss what to pack for lunch. I want something with some substance to it, but I cannot stand tuna, and microwaved or cold chicken appear not to be a bandsters friend. I just need some ideas so I don't have to eat the exact same thing every stinkin day for lunch forever because I can't think of something to bring that is easy to just grab out of the fridge and go. Thank you so much in advance for your suggestions.

I'm 4 weeks out and I don't eat 3 meals or 3 Protein Shakes a day. Maybe you are overly full. I can only get in one Protein shake a day, 1/2 sugar free pudding, 1/4 cup of Soup, about 8 ounces of Isopure, and 3 ounces of plain yogurt and some tea and maybe a few teaspoons of something else. At 6 days out I was only allowed Clear liquids...I wasn't even allowed shakes. Gosh doctor's are different, I think it's time you speak to your nutritionist.

2-3 oz of something puréed. Yesterday I had 1/2 scrambled egg, lunch I had 2 oz of a homemade mushroom soup and 1 oz of yogurt an for dinner 2 oz of cream of aspagus soup that made. I don't think it is too much.....I think I am going to call my nurse today.

I've tried.... 3 different brands from Walgreens Bariatric Advantage from online Pure Protein from Trader Joes And.... I've finally found my love. Blue Bonnet Protein!!! It mixes well, all natural, not gritty, doesn't separate when it sits, no artificial additives. Even mixes well with my yogurt. It comes in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, blueberries and original. Super high in protein too. It's a little pricy. I pay about $50 every 2 weeks which consist of one container of vanilla with 14 servings for $33 and 8 single packages.. additional flavors @ $2.65 each. Its so yummie is rather drink my shake then eat actual food. ~Leticia **HW: 259**PreOp: 216**SURG: 3/21/13 **Discharged @: 221** 3 mons post op. CW: 164.0 lbs. --- Only 14 lbs to my goal ---

Not hungry, but had to start on full liquids today, so I made a yogurt shake w/protein powder and skim milk; managed to down 1 cup. Still not hungry. Largely off the Loratab but the other drugs are a must and they make me quite dizzy. Unfortunately, the nutritionist neglected to tell me how often to eat(every 2, 3, 4 hours? When hungry?) and how much? All I got was, "take in 1000 calories and 65 grams protein a day". Still trying to figure out how I'm going to manage to get the right balance of fruits & veggies in when I'm on real food.

The day after surgery I was eating yogurt and drinking apple juice (per doctors orders). Albeit, 1/2 ounce of yogurt at a time...LOL.

Hello, I do not eat any meat, only fish and shellfish, I do eat eggs that are organic and free range only, I have drank soy milk for the past 15 years - I am planning on eating carefully as well in regards to Protein, but I will work around it. Refried Beans (vegetarian for me) are a great idea. I also use a Protein powder that is unflavored and flavored to mix in for my Soups, yogurts, and such - Gold Standard is the name. Good luck :eek:

Rice does have protein--eaten with Beans you get all the amino acids of a so-called "complete protein". It also has a fair amount of carbohydrate, but carbs are essential nutrition as well. A serving of rice and beans is a pretty good source of Protein. To the OP, it's not hard at all to get protein within your current diet. Especially if you eat seafood, it's easy to just increase the seafood you eat each week. But also eggs (if you can tolerate them, some can't), tofu (I eat a lot of vegetarian patties, esp. the Quorn products and other "chicken" like patties that have high protein for relatively few calories), legumes, and some dairy products. I don't eat regular yogurt but Greek yogurt (fage) has a lot of protein in it because it's strained and condensed (and even the fat free is great). And if you eat chicken too, you shouldn't have any trouble with getting enough protein. I consider myself a "fishatarian"--I've been a vegetarian for about 20 years, and started eating fish again about 4 years ago. I have had no trouble getting enough protein in every day. Good luck!

Hi there and congratulations on your decision to have weight loss surgery. I am so happy not to be on a diet. I make good choices -- the band let's me do that. It's like the appetite monster is off of my back. The hardest thing for me was learning to eat slowly. I was a shoveler. That will not work with the band. I learned to chew my food into very small pieces -- I use small spoons and a shrimp fork when at home. I wish I had known that I would not feel like I was giving up anything. My days vary -- and you'll find we all find our own ways, some similarities, some differences. I am not hungry in the mornings and so I don't eat. I no longer believe in starvation, etc. I am glad to know hunger now -- it feels so normal. My body says, hey, I'm hungry and then I eat. It might be 11 or 12 -- usually I have had several cups of tea by that time. I wake up early and get a lot of work done in that time. Sometimes I have leftovers from the night before -- I love salmon, for example. Often I have a Greek yogurt. For me that's a slider food and to make it something that is chewed (it's the chewing and swallowing that gets the esophageal signal happening and how we feel satiety) I add chia seeds, walnut bits, a little gluten-free cereal -- whatever mix-ins. Then I note the time because I should not be hungry again for 4-5 hours (I'm in the green zone). I might have head hunger and I can indulge that, too, if I want -- I might have an apple or some almonds. Dinner varies but I just have a little of whatever it is, and I don't wolf it down. We eat out and go to people's houses, have dinner parties. Hardly anyone knows I'm banded so my small portions just help explain how it is I'm wearing size 10 jeans right now. I'm kind of a healthy food type, not that I didn't love sweets and it's certainly possible to get really fat on high-quality food, lol. I'm just saying I did not have to cope with addictions to junk food, etc. But it is truly amazing to me that I can have food in my house that I love (cheese, nuts, chocolate, etc.) but I just have it when I'm hungry now. Before I was in the green zone I was careful not to have temptations around. Exercise is something I want to do now and I honestly cannot believe that. I worked out before (to move, I have arthritis) but I never wanted to and now I look forward to exercise. It's wild, the changes. I'm so relieved to be out of food jail. Hope this helps -- long and all over the place. Know that you will get there. Stay positive. Don't worry about the scale in the beginning. Best wishes!

I make my own (or should say made and froze ) my own cream soups and they were like heaven compared to canned. There's a bariatric app that I like that has some recipes and one was for broccoli soup. But yes, I hate everything too. I like the more fun flavors of light Greek yogurt like cheesecake and I mix in a little of my cabot whey power for more protein but it's still sweet. My problem is that I AM still hungry after surgery. I think it may be going away but I have hunger pangs when I shouldn't. I can have eggs and blended stuff like tomorrow but I have snuck eggs and blended chicken. Ok, 1 egg.

I've never been able to eat breakfast until 10am band or no band. Today I did eat some greek yogurt before I was hungry, b/c nut says how important it is. We'll see , very full now!

For mushies they suggested pudding, applesauce, yogurt, some non starch veggies cooked extremely well. Carrots are great because you can mush them up. We also were allowed scrambled eggs. I have a food processor so I used that on anything I make to make it easier to swallow.

tuna,egg or chicken salad are great mushies. the refried beans with taco sauce and a bit of lowfat sour cream. quiche . One of my favs is seafood quiche made with egg beaters and skim milk. another is ham and cheese. egg drop soup made with ff chicken broth nd scramble an egg in it . and of course smoothies made with ff vanilla yogurt. remember to think outside the box and you cam come up with some great meal ideas

I’m also going on a cruise 7 weeks after being sleeved. This will be my 31st cruise, but I’m already mentally planning how I will be successful. I will still be on purée foods then. Lots of soup and yogurt for me. I’ll be taking protein shakes and unflavored protein powder to add to things.

Just keep your eye on the prize -- try to make the good choices & work to limit your intake. It was after my 4th fill that I felt like the band was working -- before that it was willpower. I was banded 11/14/08 and I am now 41# down and the first 20 was ME -- that last 20 has been the band -- with me playing along nicely :-) You will know when the restriction is right. You will feel satisfied after a yogurt or 1/2 baked potato. I have NEVER left food on my plate before so this is a brand new world for me. You are early out -- just TRY to be good. Because it will come :-)

You can do it!!! The struggle is tough but I try to focus on how full the meat makes me and not think about yogurt and oatmeal and refried beans cause I love them to!!!! Lol we will just keep keeping on! It's exciting to realize poor choices and move away from them. Makes me feel like I'm really changing and really doing this!!! Good luck Hun! ????

Full liquids. Mean full liquidsbroth, Tea, Water Gatorade zero. sugar free popsicles, yogurt non fat,Lentil Soup strained, sugar free Jello, Good luck I start my liquid diet on Nov 30th Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using the BariatricPal App

I have passed the signpost of frustrated, turned the corner of miffed and have officially moved into the neighbourhood of royally ticked. It's more than 7 months now and I haven't lost one freakin' pound, other than during my pre-op diet. I've been through umpteen fills and unfills to the point where I don't even know what's in my band anymore, and I feel like complete and total crap. Something is. not. right. I have been throwing up multiple times a day for five months now, and my clinic doesn't seem to care. I've been asking them to please check my band placement or something because my stomach hurts, even when I haven't been puking. Yeah, I realise constant puking is going to make your stomach hurt a bit, but it's not that 'I've been heaving' gnawing feeling, it's more of a 'wow, something inside is really tugging and it is right unpleasant' feeling. Doesn't matter if I've eaten or not. They've come to the conclusion that my band is not too tight, and I agree. I can down a 700ml bottle of water in under 10 minutes, so that's an indication that things are going through just fine. Eating though, is a completely different matter. It seems the better quality food I eat, the worse it gets. The irony... I'm not getting stuck because I've been stuck and I know well what it feels like, and I'm definitely not eating too fast. I can even manage to keep the food down for as long as 90 minutes after I eat sometimes, but I get queasier and queasier the longer it sits and it invariably has to come up. Chicken, fish and all other meats have a 100% chance of coming up, soup about a 50% chance, and anything else that is remotely solid is completely a crap shoot. It's not like I'm trying to force down a steak for god's sake... all I want is a strawberry! At this point I'd even love to go back to my special "allergic to the protein shakes" pre-op diet, but I can't keep enough of those foods down. You'd think with the way things are going I'd be losing weight like crazy, but no. At least I'm not gaining any; if there's an upside, that would be it. I could deal if I felt I had the support of the clinic, but they seem to be willfully blind. I keep asking for help, but they keep saying that they only do tests if it appears there's a problem. Helloooo! Puking every day for months?!? Problem! Sharp pain in the stomach? Problem! Unable to keep even soup down on most days? Problem! Do I have to drop dead in their office for them to be convinced something isn't working right? Yeah, I'll admit that right now my food choices aren't very good. I'd love to be eating lean chicken and cooked veg, but they won't stay down. What am I stuck with? Pudding, carbs that melt in your mouth and the never ending supply of crystal light. Don't forget the frozen yogurt... lots of that happening. Protein shakes? Still allergic to them. The clinic is now telling me to drink the shakes despite the fact I'm allergic to them. They seem ok with the idea of me writhing on the floor in pain because I can't digest the protein shakes, as long as they can prove they offered me sound medical advice on how to make the band work. Too bad Canada works on the lump sum system because at this point I would love to take my business elsewhere, but I can't. :smile2: I'm quickly coming to a point where I just don't care anymore. I'm broken and I was delusional to think I could be fixed.

the closer you get to a normal BMI, the slower it goes. Those last 20 lbs were a BEAR for me to get off. Took forever. We're talking like 2 lbs a month the last three or four months. But I hung in there and finally made it. The reason being, your calorie requirements at that weight are MUCH lower than they were when you started. It takes about 1600 calories for me to maintain my current weight. I would have lost weight like CRAZY if I ate 1600 calories when I weighed over 300 lbs. For me to lose 2 lbs a week (which I could have done NO PROBLEM when I weighed 300 + lbs), I would have to eat 7000 fewer calories that week (well, I would have when I weighed 300+ lbs, too). That's 1000 fewer calories a day. When I was scarfing up 3500 kcal/day, that means I would have had to cut back to 2500 kcal/day. Now I would have to cut back to 600 per day. Ah...no. I could do that the first couple months out of surgery, but 600 calories a day at seven years out? No way. Plus it wouldn't have even been healthy. So I basically lose a couple lbs a month when I'm trying to lose weight. 8-10 oz portions - would depend on what it is. Greek yogurt, yes. Steak - no. Stretching your stomach - probably not. You'd have to really overeat, day after day, every day, to do that. you are hungry because physical hunger does come back for the vast majority of us sometime during the first year. And that's when things get a lot harder. I've never counted fats. And I wasn't on an ultra-low carb plan (mine was balanced), but the first few months, I rarely ate over 80 carbs a day since I had to get in so much protein. There wasn't room for more than about 80 carbs. Now i probably get double that - but I limit the "bad" ones. Mine mostly come from whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. exercise isn't that effective in helping you lose a bunch of weight unless you're talking swimming mega laps or running marathons. But it's great for your overall health, and you should do it regularly if you can. It CAN help you maintain once you get to goal, though.