MamaMichelle

Here's what your ticker should look like: You just copied the code from the 2nd HTML box not the 1st box (BBcode) try copying the code from the 1st box and click here: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=22 to put it in your signature box.

GREAT JOB JENA! You are doing awesome girl! Dr. Miranda never contacted me either and I had been doing my own pre-op diet for a month and when I emailed her to see if I had lost enough weight pre-op she said I was doing great and to keep it up. I think the standard guideline is she wants you to lose 5%-10% of your total body weight, so if you are over 300 or 400 I don't know if 2 weeks would be enough to lose 30-40 lbs so she might suggest those bandsters start early! I am not a phone person so I emailed her and she got back to me in less than 24hrs! Her email address is: drmiranda@obesitycontrolcenter.com

At 800 calories (or less) each day you are definitely in starvation mode, I know it's hard but for the next 5 days bump it up to 1000calories at least and I bet you will see some results again. I was doing shakes for most of the 3 week liquids phase (never been a soup person) and with 5 shakes a day (at 160 cal each) I was only getting 800 calories per day so I added the 200cal more (using 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in my breakfast shake) and that kick started my weight loss back into high gear and i lost 3 or 4 lbs that week because I was eating more calories! Crazy huh?

Sorry to hear about your issues, but I'm not sure that you really know that you have NO restriction until you attempt solid foods which is still 2 weeks away fr you. I did shakes for almost the entire 3 weeks post op and for the first week I could only drink 1/2 cup at a time, by week 2 I was able to drink 1 cup with no issueos so I also thought that maybe I had lost restriction. Then after week 3 when I went for my first "real" post-op meal I could only eat 1/4 cup of salad before I was full... As of Friday I am at 5 weeks post op and now I really do feel like I have lost all restriction (which as Clynn said is totally normal) and that proves to me that what I was feeling back in week 2 was all in my head, so I will be ready for my fill on the 18th! So really don't worry for now that you have lost restriction wait till the solid food phase and if by week 3 you have lost restriction then you will just have to try your best to eat like you do have restriction until the 6week mark when your body is healed enough for your first fill! It will be fine!!

I am a (relatively) younger bandster (age 26) and so far I am down 39lbs in 3 months (21lbs pre-op and 18lbs post op) so far I have no sagging skin on my stomach and doubt I will need a TT just from the way my body is adjusting. I really think that everyone is different and it's a totally individual thing based on genetics and where you carry most of your weight as a heavy person, but honestly would you rather be thin and maybe a little saggy or stay heavy? For me it's not even a question!!

Great to see your progress, you're becoming one HOT mama!

I ordered Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery: Over 140 Delicious Low-Fat High-Protein Recipes to Enjoy in the Weeks, Months and Years After Surgery as well as: Recipes for Life After Weight-Loss Surgery: Delicious Dishes for Nourishing the New You (Healthy Living Cookbooks) I found the 2nd book to be 100 times better than the first, not only because it gives you band friendly calorie counts (meaning it will tell you how many calories in 1/4 a cup of soup instead of how many calories in the entire pot of soup like the first book gives) but also because I didn't find much of anything to my liking as far as the recipes in Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery and it's not because I don't like some of the more exotic dishes ( I feel I have pretty sophisticated tastes, living in Las Vegas where every celebrity chef has a signature restaurant helps) So for me when choosing between the two the cover pictures say it all are you a scallops kind of girl or a french toast kind of girl (by the way the french toast on the cover has less calories than the scallops dish, lol). I

Glad you two girls are on the road to recovery, I too had a horrible spell the morning we left TJ I drank 12oz of starbucks tea and those were the worst 5 hours of my life... Can't imagine it lasting for days!! Big Hugs > from all of your bandster sisters!

LOL you crack me up Mackenzie

Good Luck at your fill Cindy, let us know how it goes! P.S great job- You are soooooooo close to ONEDERLAND!! =D> (for you newbies that means under 200lbs)

Love the new pic Clynn, looking good!

DixyChixy- You have a great advantage over many bandsters in that you have a long time before your surgery, so why wait until 2 weeks before your surgery date to start the pre-op diet? I had 2 months before my surgery and was able to lose 21lbs I'm sure you can lose at least that much weight in 6 months! The key is to make little changes starting now, maybe replacing just 1 meal a day with a slim-fast. I know it seems small but you'd be amazed to know how much a little change like that (for me it was exchanging a 160 cal optifast for the 800-1000 calorie lunch I was consuming. Just cutting 500calories per day from what you used to eat will give you a 1lb weight loss a week if there are about 24 weeks before your surgery it should be a breeze!

I had stomach gas pains but no shoulder pain at all, I don't recall getting Oxygen maybe once I got into the surgery room? When did you get it?

I did a quick sarch and "Pat in Washington" posted the following in THIS thread:

Sorry Kimmie, don't know how I missed this post!! Hmmm... I have yet to purchase any books since surgery, the only books I ordered pre-op were Dr. Ortiz's Lap Band for Life and 2 cook books off of Amazon... It's funny you mention it because I just heard about a book that I will be picking up this weekend, it's a little over the top and in your face but I hear if you aren't easily offended and want a non-sugar coated book about diets and weight loss it is wonderfully informative. It's called Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin The authors are not weight loss experts but did their research and it makes sense to me. Borders sells it for $14 but Costco had it for $7.69. Here is a passage for those who substitute Splenda for sweetners. "Because we're having so much fun, let's bash the s$#& out of Splenda, one of the newer sweetners. Splenda is made by chlorinating sugar, changing its molecular structure. The finished product is called sucralose. The makers of this poison tout its lack of calories and claim it's safe for diabetics. The FDA calls sucralose 98 percent pure. The other 2 percent contains small amounts of heavy metals, methanol, and arsenic. Well, gee, at least it doesn't have calories. So what if it has a little arsenic? Sucralose has been found to cause diarrhea; organ, genetic, immune system, and reproductive damage; swelling of the liver and kidneys; and a decrease in fetal body weight. What a splendid product! According to Dr. Joseph Mercola in Consumer Research magazine's article 'The Potential Dangers of Sucralose,' 'There is no clear-cut evidence that sugar substitutes are useful in weight reduction. On the contrary, there is some evidence that these substances may stimulate appetite.'" Now also keep in mind that you could probably find any other number of people who have Dr.'s that say Splenda is great. Any topic is up for interpretation but for me this book is in my face about what I am putting in my body and what it does to my body and that's what I need sometimes!

I have received a few PM's about this so I am actually going to post this as a topic so others can post their before and after pictures or images of whatever they want INSIDE of a post like this one. The first thing to know is that you cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC nor images stored behind authentication mechanisms, e.g. hotmail or yahoo mailboxes, password protected sites, etc. If you want to use pictures from your PC or digital camera you first have to upload them to a website that offers image hosting, the most popular are ImageShack & PhotoBucket I use myspace. Once you register for free with them, those photos hosts allow you to upload images from your computer to them then give you the links to post safely in your forums entries. They even give you links wrapped with bbCode tags so that you have only to copy & paste into your posts. If you want to find the link for an image already published on the web it takes and extra step. Let's use the OCC Image/Logo from the top right corner of this page as an example, it looks like this: To get the address of this image right-click on the Logo.. A box will pop up the very LAST option will be PROPERTIES click that and in the box that will popup it will have the ADDRESS of the link for the Logo that you'll have to copy, in the OCC logo example, the link would say this: http://www.lapbandforum.com/style_images/7_logo_new.jpg Once you have copied the link open a new post or reply to a post and you can just add the tags icon (it is on the bottom row and is the 2nd button to the right of the smiley face button). This will give you a pop up box where you will paste the address using "Ctrl + v" then click OK and it will automatically be put into your message. I always suggest clicking PREVIEW POST to make sure it shows up before submitting a new topic!! I hope that's not too confusing... Feel free to use this thread to practice posting pics of whatever you'd like you can use the OCC image above or whatever!!

So Glad you are back and feeling well, I too was a post op sprinter... lol the little nurse had to tell me to slow down but like you I was feeling so great that walking the laps around the center at a brisk pace was no prob at all!!

Here is how to make the weight loss tickers (for those who are still trying): First visit this link (I suggest doing it in a separate window) http://www.tickerfactory.com/ezticker/tick...gner.php?type=3 Select your ticker ruler- click next Select your ticker slider- click next Enter in your weight information and create a pin- click next Use Ctrl+C to cut the text from the first box (aka the bbCode box) Return to the lapbandforum.com site by clicking on this link to Edit your signature: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=22 Use Ctrl+V to paste the ticker info into the signature box Click- Update my signature and you should see the ticker image at the top of that page, if you see just text something is wrong! Hope this helps!

I thought that sounded pretty cool also, then I realized that your band would have to have some sort of electrical device implanted in it so it could receive the fill/un-fill radio waves from your fill Dr. And while I know that people are walking around with pacemakers and such implanted and don't have issues for me that's pushing things a little too far to have something electrical inside of me in addition to the band! I would hate to be setting of metal detectors at the airport lol.

For me it was seeing this year's Christmas Pictures... Here's a highlight me at a size 20: This was me at my highest, between 249-247 I just about cried when I saw these. I had been thinking about the lapband and started researching. On Jan 1st I started a pre-op diet from a DR I found online and was ready to pay $16,000 then I saw the Oprah show in early Feb where they mentioned OCC and took it as a sign that Dr. Ortiz was the right doctor for me!! Here I am 3 months later and already down almost 40lbs... Now a size 16

Found this on a fellow bloggers page! Wow - what a fantastic article just published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1206929090...ays_us_page_one Industry Giants Push Obesity Surgery Medical-device makers, venture capitalists and surgeons are racing to turn a once-controversial weight-loss procedure into the next big thing in elective surgery. Once dismissed by some surgeons as a gimmick, gastric banding — in which a silicone band is wrapped around the upper stomach to restrict food intake — is now the focus of a fierce competition pitting consumer-products giant Johnson & Johnson against Botox maker Allergan Inc. Venture-capital-backed outpatient centers are popping up to implant the bands. Growing ranks of surgeons are touting the procedure at free public seminars. All see a vast market in a country where diet and exercise programs have failed to slow an obesity epidemic. Lap-Band v. Gastric Bypass Image A number of recent studies suggest that gastric banding is safer than gastric bypass, and some data suggest comparable, if slower, weight-loss results. Improvements in surgical techniques and follow-up care have helped gastric banding become the dominant weight-loss operation in Europe and Australia. Credit Suisse analyst Marc Goodman predicts that gastric banding will account for half of all weight-loss surgeries by 2010, up from about 30% today. GASTRIC BANDWAGON What’s New: Once dismissed as a gimmick, gastric banding is now seen by some in the medical industry as the next big thing in elective surgery. The Players: Industry giants Johnson & Johnson and Allergan, as well as venture-capital firms that are backing outpatient centers. Patient Concerns: The silicone device can shift after surgery, causing it to lose effectiveness. And patients may eventually need another surgery to replace or remove it. READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE BY CLICKING THE LINK AT THE TOP OF THIS POST... Enjoy!

I believe Dr. Miranda says anything you can get through a straw! So blend it up and sip, sip, sip!

Before you buy a new scale check out the below article I found on Yahoo Health! "A watched pot…or get off the scale? Is this you, or do you know someone, who cannot lose weight even though they seem to be doing everything right? Imagine going from not exercising at all to exercising four or five times a week, and from eating a high calorie junk food diet to eating a really clean and reduced calorie diet, and still not losing any significant weight – bummer - right? And not uncommon, I see this a lot. In my opinion, it’s just one more obvious incident of mind over body, self-sabotage, and justification for working on mental fitness as well as physical fitness. A conversation with one of my students/clients highlights my point exactly; she said to me, “ever since we have been working out together my diet is good, I am drinking a lot of water, my clothes fit looser, and I am happier… until I get on the scale - and I see that almost nothing, number-wise, has changed†She gets on the scale, she gets disappointed, and what happens next is all too predictable: she sabotages her progress, and her happiness. She dives into work, stops exercising and watching her diet, and watching the scale. After a week or so people started commenting on how good she looks, and they ask her what she’s doing to lose weight. When she does get on the scale again, now a week off of her ‘fitness program’ (and her obsession with the scale), and four weeks after we started training together, she sees that she has in fact lost a chunk of weight. Her body has been allowed, without the negative mental interference of obsessing about the numbers on the scale, to function naturally and drop weight, as anyone’s body eventually will when caloric intake is reduced and caloric expenditure is increased. As soon as she took her mind off of the problem, which she saw as, “the numbers on the scale aren’t moving fast enough,†her body responded to the healthy actions she had been taking. This is the dieter’s version of: a watched pot never boils. When we watch the pot we are typically focusing on how long it’s taking and its lack of progress. For most of us, the act of ‘watching the pot’ is an indication of impatience, and lack of trust, which quickly turns into, “this isn’t working and, I quit!†We create (or contribute to) an ongoing cycle of failure. What we need for success is a positive outlook with optimistic expectation, but it’s hard to do after years of failed diet and fitness attempts. You can however, undo the negative self-fulfilling prophecy through positive affirmations and greater awareness. Affirmations will recondition your thinking, and a heightened awareness will allow you to not take actions that sabotage your progress. Stay off the scale; you only have control over the actions that you take, not how quickly the results come. And unless you are from another planet, it’s unlikely that, on a physical level, your body is much different from everyone else’s. It will respond positively to increasing your exercise and reducing your caloric intake if you just trust, give it time, and stop sabotaging yourself.

Thanks SJ- I've got TONS of great websites some that deal with Band issues others not so much.. Here's another Fave site of mine: HUNGRY GIRL - Tips and Tricks for Hungry Chicks the site is http://www.hungry-girl.com/index.php not entirely band friendly but tons of great recipes (especially the low calorie desserts) and every recipe has a picture and the nutrition info on it... Here's an example: Chippity Do Dah! There is a time and place for everything, people. And the time is NOW for chocolate chip cookies at the HG HQ!!! We've developed a recipe for extra-soft, chocolate-chip-packed cookies, each with a POINTS® value of 1*. Our doughy double C creation is actually more like a hybrid of cookies, soft snack bars, and muffins! And unlike some other cookie recipes that yield four dozen cookies and require several baking pans (who needs FOUR DOZEN cookies?!?), our recipe makes exactly eight chunky soft cookies for your chewing pleasure! What are you waiting for? Grab the chocolate chips and flour... STAT! Ingredients: 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour 1/2 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated) 6 tbsp. unsweetened applesauce 1/4 cup canned pure pumpkin 1/4 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters) 2 1/2 tbsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 2 tbsp. brown sugar, not packed 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract 1/4 tsp. baking soda 1/8 tsp. salt Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients except for the chocolate chips (flour, Splenda, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt). Mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together all wet ingredients (applesauce, pumpkin, egg substitute, and vanilla extract). Add this mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir until completely blended. Then, fold in the chocolate chips. Spray a large baking pan with nonstick spray, and spoon batter into 8 evenly spaced circles. Place pan in the oven for about 10 minutes (until cookies appear done and feel firm). Remove pan from the oven and allow cookies to cool slightly. For best results, enjoy while the cookies are still warm and the chips are still melty! MAKES 8 SERVINGS Serving Size: 1 medium-sized cookie (about 1.5 oz.) Calories: 88 Fat: 1.5g Sodium: 93mg Carbs: 17g Fiber: 2g Sugars: 6g Protein: 3g POINTS® value 1*