MamaMichelle

Here is a bandster who had PCOS and got pregnanat just weeks after banding... It's been a while since I have checked in on Teresa the woman featured in the videos, I just watched her 8 week update video and she dropped a bombshell: SHE's PREGNANT!! She had PCOS and had to have invtro to have her twins 5 years ago, I'm not sure on her timeline because she says she's 8 weeks post band and she said she is 6 weeks pregnant.. But she said that 6 weeks of the good nutrition (I guess 4 weeks pre-op and 2 weeks after surgery?) basically took her from infertile to "the ovaries of a 21 year old" in the words of her doctor, it's a pretty crazy thing!! Here's the video on that topic for you girls that have PCOS: http://www.malleysurgical.com/images/stori...ent/movie12.jpg

I have heard of high volume lipo before, where they take out 20-40lbs... A friend of mine had normal lipo at about 200lbs and the Dr sucked out 14lbs of fat...

Here are the BMI classifications if anyone is wondering where they fall... Under 16 Underweight Between 16 and 18 Thin Between 19 and 25 Ideal Between 26 and 29 Overweight Between 30 and 34 Obese Between 35 and 39 Severely Obese Between 40 and 49 Morbidly Obese Between 50 and 59 Super Morbidly Obese Over 60 Super Super Morbidly Obese I started with a BMI of almost 43, never knew I was at the Morbidly Obese level!!

Congrats sweetie, what a wonderful feeling that must be!! I can't wait till I reach that milestone too (sadly it takes longer for us shorties to get past the big O word)

Good luck Shannon and Pam, everything will be great!!

lol you guys are hilarious!

If you are losing 1-2 lbs a week then I don't think you need another fill, I would try bumping up the protein to 5oz and 3/4 of vegetables for a week and see if you stay fuller longer, that will only add 100-200 calories to your meals so shouldn't cause any weight gain! Congrats on the progress!!

Have you seen this post: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?showtopic=5443

You and those tiny pictures!! lol Looking GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT! and a cute hubby too..

I think that water and protein are the most important things that you need to keep up with at any point during your lap-band journey! I made sure to get 60-100 grams of protien per day during my post-op diet (I mainly used the Optifast Soups and Shakes as well as added Unjury unflavored protein powder to both) and also drank 80-100oz of water each day... I just found this from my blog post.. On the plan below I lost 15lbs in my 3 weeks after surgery before moving to solids: My Post OP Daily Diet- I have gotten a few emails about what my diet was pre-op and about what I am eating now, I can't think of what else to post so I figured that would do. First off I have to examine my past habits- Before the band I was the type of eater to skip breakfast, often skip lunch (sometimes I would grab some fast food for lunch) and then overeat at dinner. My husband works in a fine dining resturant so he usually isn't at home at night so instead of cooking something for my son and me I would order delivery or go out to eat with him and binge binge binge! I'd order a small pizza give 2 slices to my son and eat 6 of the slices in one sitting, or eat a McDonalds Quarter Pounder Value Meal and still finish the half of my son's cheeseburger after he said he was full. Just awful stuff in retrospect... Next I have to add that for me to succeed on a diet (no matter if it's atkins, slim-fast or whatever I've tried them all) I have to put myself on a schedule. I am lucky enough to be at home for most of the day and night so I am able to do so. I've always heard that it is best to have small mini-meals throughout the day so I have tried to impliment that stragey and that is what works best for me! The main source of my meals (both pre-op and now) have been using Optifast800 program- The 800 part comes from the number of calories you consume in a day... Each shake, or soup or bar has 160 calories and 14 grams of protein per serving so you end up eating 5 Optifast "meals" per day. To help get my calories around 1,000 I have been adding 1/2 scoop of Unjury Protein Powder which provides and additional (1 full scoop has 80calories and 20 grams of protein) so by adding 1/2 of a scoop to all 5 of my meals I am getting another 50 grams of protein and another 200 Calories. My Daily Diet- Part Two So as I said I am on the optifast plan, basically I alternate between their Chocolate Shake Mixture and their Garden Tomato Soup Mixture, and I doctor both mixes up to make them taste better and more nutritionally sound... Here is the Chocolate Shake Mixture: Optifast Chocolate Shake Packet (160 cal and 14g protein) + 1/2 scoop of Unflavored Unjury Powder (40 cal and 10g protein) + 2 capfuls of DaVinci Vanilla Syrup (0cal and 0g protein) + 2 tsp of Benefiber (25cal and 0g protein) MEAL TOTAL: 225cal and 24g of protein Here is the Garden Tomato Soup Mixture: Optifast Garden Tomato Packet (160 cal and 14g protein) + 1/2 scoop of Chicken Soup Unjury Powder (45 cal and 10.5g protein) MEAL TOTAL: 205cal and 24.5g of protein Here is the Time Schedule: 8:00am - Chocolate Shake Mixture (225cal and 24g protein) 11:00am - Tomato Soup Mixture (205 cal and 24.5g protein) 2:00pm - Chocolate Shake Mixture (225cal and 24g protein) 5:00pm - Tomato Soup Mixture (205 cal and 24.5g protein) 8:00pm - Chocolate Shake Mixture (225cal and 24g protein) DAILY TOTALS: 1085 calories and 121g protein In hindsight I probably only ended up doing 3 shakes and 1 soup on most days... I never think you should eat when not hungry so if 5:00pm rolled around and I wasn't hungry I would just skip that meal and eat at 8pm.

Well many of those people were gastric bypass surgery patients who probably lost their weight super fast, the lap-band is a slower pace so hopefully our skin will be able to shrink at a better rate since we aren't losing 5-8lbs a week!! Personally I'd rather take a year to loose 100lbs and have my skin look better than to do it all in 6 months and look like some of those pics!

No problem, I love meeting bandsters whenever I can!! IF you ever make it to Las Vegas let me know and we can do lunch!!

Usually it is a sign of dehydration or your body going into ketosis...

Welcome to our group!! You guys are so cute together!!

Oh and here's a post about others with the Larger VGbadnd (the one that holds 10cc) http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?showtopic=7447

I went to the box color to save some $$ around christmas last year, I learned that my natural hair color is super dark so box color will never lift it to blonde enough (even if I buy the platnium color) so after 3 or 4 boxes over 2 weeks I just went to brown.. When I went to have it fixed a few weeks after being banded they colorist said my ends were GREEN, you can actually kind of tell in my first before and after pic how bad it was and how much better it was after being professionally fixed:

Super CUTE... oh and Bella and Daisy aren't too shabby either, lol!! But really Kim, you look HOT! I bet Mr. 2BSlim is loving the new you!!! Did you darken your hair?

My son got his every other week trip to McDonalds this afternoon (see this is where I went wrong in the past, I used to eat there 2-3 times per WEEK myself but only allowed him to go there every other Saturday,lol) Today I had just finshed a bottle of the peach-mango Isopure about 30 min before and I really had no desire to eat anything while there... even the smell of it made me a little sick, I did get a sweet tea, but only drank abotu 1/2 of it because the sugar was giving me a headache. I love my Band too!

Most of the chain places have their calorie data on thier websites, so if you know you'll be going to someplace with friends or family do a little recon work before you leave and choose the healthy choice before you get there when the smell of fried foods and walking past someone with a juicy cheeseburger on their plate doesn't sway your ordering choice!!

I was sleeping on my stomach by day 3 or 4 with no problems! If you're feeling soreness from your port it is from the internal stitching and right now your belly is protecting that area so your should be fine...

No one is using Phentermine, those glitter stars that say "I lost X lbs" are from a Phentermine website, we are just using them because we dig sparkly things! When I posted the directions on how to add a glitter star (posted here: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?showtopic=5571 ) I did it so that link and Phentermine words wouldn't show up but some went through that website and the link and wording is included.

New Yorkers try to swallow calorie sticker shock 600 calorie muffins? The first city to adopt law faces unappetizing surprises Although touted as "fat free," a slice of banana chocolate chip cake at Starbucks packs 390 calories, as New Yorkers discovered when the coffee chain began displaying calorie counts to comply with a new New York City law. By Roni Caryn Rabin MSNBC contributor Nora Cara was flabbergasted. She was about to order her usual morning coffee and muffin at Dunkin’ Donuts when she saw the new calorie labels. The chocolate chip muffin she had her eye on was 630 calories. “I was blown away,” said Cara, a 27-year-old homemaker from Forest Hills in New York City. “I’m not a no-carb type of person, and I usually don’t even think about it. But you pick up a little muffin with your coffee, and it has 630 calories in it? That’s a bit extreme!” New Yorkers have been in the throes of sticker shock since this spring when the Big Apple became the first city in the country to implement a law forcing chain restaurants to post the calorie count of each food in the same size and font as the price. Restaurants have not exhausted their legal challenges, but the city will start fining violators up to $2,000 beginning Friday, say officials with the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. While some sit-down chains and fast-food eateries are waiting until the last minute, coffee shops like Starbucks — home of the 470 calorie raspberry scone and 610 calorie cookie — have been replacing their menu boards and adding calorie tags to pastries in recent weeks. The result: Do a little eavesdropping in a New York City restaurant, and you may think you’ve stumbled into an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. At T.G.I. Friday’s, one of the few sit-down chain restaurants to have already added calorie counts to menus, a group of young women gasped as they studied the menu, barely able to find a meal under 1,000 calories, never mind an appetizer or dessert. Both Stephanie Fowler and Lindsay Green asked about the suddenly popular Classic Sirloin — at 290 calories, it was one of the lowest calorie items on the menu — but learned the restaurant ran out by the time the dinner rush started. Starbucks customers in New York City are in for a surprise when they see the calorie counts of their favorite pastries. Outside the Forest Hills’ Dunkin’ Donuts, Juan Restrepo, the 45-year-old owner of a construction company, said he was quitting corn muffins — 510 calories! — this time for good. “My daughter warned me about them,” he lamented. “I just didn’t listen.” Preventing diabetes Putting the brakes on thoughtlessly inhaling calories is exactly the effect New York City health officials hoped the law would have. They say calorie labels could reduce the number of obese New Yorkers by 150,000 over the next five years, and prevent 30,000 cases of diabetes. New York is not the only city pushing calorie labels. New laws in Seattle and California’s Santa Clara and San Francisco are scheduled to go into effect later this year, including some more stringent than New York’s, requiring restaurants to post information about sodium, carbs, fats and cholesterol in addition to calories. Such laws have faced stiff opposition and legal challenges from the restaurant industry. A judge struck down New York City’s first calorie labeling law, which would only have applied to fast food restaurants that were already making calorie information available on Web sites or posters. The law was then revised to apply to all chain restaurants with 15 or more outlets nationwide. “We’re still in court, but the ruling is in effect,” said New York City health department spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti. Fines for the restaurants who haven't posted calorie counts by Friday will range from $200 to $2,000 depending on the violation, she said. Scaperotti said she didn't know what impact the calorie labels have made on consumer choices or sales. But, she said, “We know nutritional information is effective. If you go to the Starbucks near our office in lower Manhattan, the little cookies that are 80 calories each — they’re the first ones to go.” 1,360 calorie salad Many New Yorkers are finding that even the foods they thought were lower calorie really aren't. Vicki Freedman, who lives in Manhattan, watches her weight and always tries to choose a light option when eating out. But the 26 year old just discovered that the Friday's pecan-crusted chicken salad, served with mandarin oranges, dried cranberries and celery, has 1,360 calories. “That surprised me the most because they market it as a healthy option, she said. “It's like false advertising. You think it's better than the burger and the fries. It’s misleading. (The cheeseburger served with fries is, indeed, 1,290 calories.) Meals ordered at sit-down chain restaurants may have more calories than typical takeout fast-food, nutritionists say, because the portions are often larger and an entrée can be served on a plate smothered with French fries. In a takeout restaurant, the fries have to fit into a container, which limits the portion size. Managers at some restaurants, including an Upper East Side Johnny Rocket's and Outback Steakhouse, said new menus including calorie counts would be on tables by Friday, or shortly thereafter. We're concerned, acknowledged Eric Hagy, proprietor of Outback Steakhouse on Third Avenue in Manhattan. I don't know what effect it will have, but it will bring people's attention to certain items that are high in calories, like the BloominOnion appetizer. It has over 2,000 calories, but it's meant to be shared between two or three people.” At a Starbucks on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, barista Bishoy Ayoub, 18, said he’s noticed many customers switching to smaller drinks or reduced-fat drinks since calorie labels were posted several months ago. ‘Take off the labels’ Some people actually tell us we should take off the labels, because it discourages them from ordering what they want, he said. But I think honesty is the best policy.” At a Wendy’s nearby, where calorie counts were just posted next to prices on the menu-boards behind the counter, customers didn't flinch. “I figure I've got 1,350 calories here on my tray,”said Tristan Rowe, 26, who lives in Brooklyn, pointing to his lunch of a chicken club sandwich, junior bacon-cheeseburger, large fries and a large Coke (which actually added up to 1,680 calories). “It's not going to change what I order I'm not watching my waistline. I have a very active lifestyle.” Despite the eye-opening revelations, whether New Yorkers will switch to lower calorie meals remains to be seen. They may just switch menus. That's what Fowler, the woman who was dining recently with her friends at T.G.I. Friday's, decided to do. “I'm so upset,” she said, noting some entrees like the Jack Daniels ribs and shrimp dinner contain almost 2,000 calories, and the desserts were more of the same (the brownie obsession is 1,500 calories). “I wish they wouldn't have done this. But then Fowler noticed that the waiter had handed her friend an old menu, which didn't have calorie counts on it. You got a menu without anything on it?”she asked her friend. Can I have yours?” Roni Caryn Rabin is a health writer who lives in New York City. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday and Real Simple magazine, among other publications, and is author of the book, "Six Parts Love: A Family's Battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease." She teaches journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. © 2008 MSNBC Interactive

Oh Lynn don't be silly, you've lost 26lbs in 13 WEEKS... A great accomplishment in anyone's book and that's an average of 2lbs a week which is the perfect pace for any bandster!!! I think that anyone that gets down to those lower numbers is going to see a slower pace, once I hit about 195 it really slowed down for me, gone are the days of waking up to a miracle 2lb loss... So I've started to exercise to try to keep up a good pace for myself! I know nobody exercises more than you do girl so I bet you're body fat % is super low and I bet those clothing sizes are dropping fast!! KEEP IT UP GIRLFRIEND!!

You look Thin and Fit, what a great combo!! You're already in the 160's and that is an amazing feat itself!! Keep up the good work...

You know I was a stress eater before being banded and while it never goes away totally, the band (and a good fill) will usually stop you from doing too much damage.... For example, 2 nights ago I got some stressful news while I was out and about and after stewing on that for a while and passing an italian fast food plsace I stopped in and ordered their Chicken Parmsean dish sat down read to shovel in the food and I realized what I was doing... I still ate some of it, maybe 1/2 of one chicken breast but totally avoided the pasta and chesse... I won't lie and say it didn't make me feel a little bit better, later that night I went online and saw that the entire dish had something like 2,000 calories so where before the band I would have eaten the whole thing (oh and the 2 breadsticks that came with it, probably another 500 calories for those) the band made me more concious of what I was eating and I was able to stop myself! I even lost a pound the next day so no harm done!