AngieB

coffee with cream 1/2 chocolate chip cookie 1/2 a oatmeal raison cookie (one bit to many, in my throat fill.) No PB but ugh! L - protein chips, humus, cajon turkey lunch meat vw 20 oz

Way to go, this morning was pretty tough for me. I really wanted to step on the scale, but didn't. This is proving harder for me. Ugh. I even weighed myself 4 times yesterday! Hey it was Wed. Had to get it out of my system, but make me wonder if I got it out or if it made not gettign on the scale harder this morning?? Gosh, should it be this hard???

Debbie - use photobucket to upload your pictures. Once you get your piccys in photobucket. Copy and paste the code into the signature page and save your siggy. Let me know if you need more help.

Darn! That would have been nice for you to have a "cold" day. instead of snow.. Yeah, sorta stinks that I am burning up all my PTO but what are ya gonna do... going a bit stir crazy though. I agree with you on the centrum liquid....yuck! I did it too, but soon found something better tasting.

Hey Steph - I take some liquid and some pills. So far I have had 1 issues with pills and do not expect to have an issue, I think it was a fluke. I will say that I am starting to lean towards more chewables and liquids now though. Gets old taking the vitamins one at a time and waiting for some time to pass. So far I had one time when I think a pill got caught up in my pouch. I hadn't realized it until I went to take another drink....the water didn't want to pass. It was not the greatest feeling or the worst. It did catch me off guard though. I take a liquid multi called Liquimax Complete Nutrition. It doesn't taste bad and is packed with good stuff! I also tried a chewable multi vitamin. I don't care for it as much. (maybe cuz it is sugar free....not sure?) Vitamin E - pill NeoCell - pill Calcuim with Vit D - pill (as soon as this bottle is gone I will have a chewable or liquid calcuim) Iron - liquid (I began taking this as soon as I noticed more bruises showing up for no reason. I take it very hit and miss more miss than hit.) **can anyone tell I am stir crazy....day 2 snowed in......school is canceled again tomorrow AND I couldn't get it if I wanted too. I am stalking this forum......muuuahhhhh haa haaa!

Mandy - Thanks.....because of all the snow we had and the blizzard he used another one of his 9 lives. Now, I don't know again. I am back to hoping he will stop again....why....I love that darn cat soo much. I suppose it is gonna happen sooner or later....looks now like it is going to be later.... Denial is bliss....or is it?!

Denise - Great weigh in! I can see the 170's in your future! Debbie - you and the band make one hell of a pair! I am amazed! Way to keep the weight coming off! We need some pictures! Show off woman! You have almost lost 80 lbs! Holy Smokes! Keep pushing on Carrie - our bodies fight us sometimes! Bogiesmom - You are doing so awesome. I wish you would have gone before me in sugery, you have great liquid ideas! I think that is why I struggled and cheated on my post op.....the liquids I had sucked! Great weightloss - girl you are going to do some damage once you have restriction. Your boyfriend will be eating his words and noticing EVERY guy who is checking you out!!!! Laura - you are our steady Eddie! WOW You keep on dropping the weight. AMAZING!!!! Shelby - I am so impressed at how you maintained and held the line with your unfill. You are a rock star! Pinkfordyone - WOW great job! I am not sure what you have to loose but let me say you are off to a fabulous start! Good job!

Steph - Thanks! I feel really good. I am excited to see what this new fill has in store for me. Looks like it's another getting to know you period. LOL You are so on the money when you say our bodies are individual. What works good for one, may prove not to be worth a hill of beans to another. I think if we follow the rules and feel our way around we will find what works best for ourselves. I love this board becuase it exposes us to all sorts of ideas and practices.

Carrie - I know people who have the 4 cc bands maxed; and by maxed I mean more than 4 cc's. Our bands will actually hold over rthe 4cc's. (with the tubing and port, wish I could remember the amount but I can't.) If I were you I wouldn't worry at all. Seems more often than not what we worry about doesn't happen anyway. In terms of band speak you have a ways to go before you are maxed out. Besides, the more you have in your band the smaller the tweeks are. You may find that you only need a .1 cc to give you the bump you need. I think you are on the right track. I know it can be hard to see the same range of numbers on the scale after a real successful run on weight loss. Your body is trying to keep up with your rock star weight loss. Sooner or later your body's gonna win and take a moment. You have been good at changing things up and kicking butt. It may be time for a fill to really throw your body back into some weightloss movement! LOL I was kinda suprised when you came back last time with out a fill. Understandalby so after an operation, but I though you would have had a fill. Are you trying the local Dr out?

Carrie - I am pretty sure meeting that eating 1200 calories will not be happening. Hopefully, *crosses fingers* I have the restriction that makes a cup of food at a meal the max I can eat. I could have this all wrong, and if I do we will see shortly. (proof is in the pudding) BUT from everything I have learned from "those who have gone before me and had fricking awesome results" that sticking to a 1000-1200 calorie diet is not what they have paid attention too. I am not saying EVERYBODY who has had success has thrown the 1000-1200 cals out the window, but there is something to eating less. I suppose I will have plenty of critics that will say this or that, but we all have our ideas of what is going to work, then we find it's time for a new approach. I've read and read, watched a crap ton of videos with people who have had WLS, belonged to his board and what I have seen is those who hit the mark do not eat a good balanced diet. Sounds terrible I suppose to some, but given the fact that we have had WLS we are ready for a shift in our relationship with food. Even eating a cup of food at a meal, I am falling short of my nutritional needs. I've found that by the time I get my protein in I really don't have room for the fruits and veggie. Or if I do have room it is like a tablespoon. Really....that is not meeting the 5-6 a day requirment. Recently I had a you tuber comment on a video I had made where I spoke about eating 1/4 1/2 a cup of food at a meal. Right now, I am not meeting a healthy value of dietary needs. I take iron, calcuim with Vit D, NeoCell, and a multi vitamin. *clears throat* See what I am saying? Also, why is it that my very own Dr.'s office that I go to strive to get you to a 1/2 to 1/4 cup of food per meal? I am taking the stance that less is more with weightloss right now. I could prove to be wrong, and if I am I will revise my plan of action again. The beauty of the band is that it is adjustable! Yay for us! The make our pouches small for a reason, add restriction and viala! Now, I will also say, I AM under Dr.'s care and supervison. I do go in monthly for a nurse visit and check up. I have a team behind me and they are supportive of my actions. Carrie - This is what my game plan is; I am going to focus on eating well and take vitamins and suppliments. I am not going to count calories at all. Freedom! LOL Wish me luck girl!

Protein shake; ice, skim milk, water, 1/3 banana, 2 strawberries small piece of cheese bowl of ice cream steamed califlower with garlic and a touch of cheese.

I had a frozenish protein shake for breakfast. Made it with skim, ice, water, 1/3 banana, 2 strawberries. Normally I have coffee first thing, but hubby let me sleep in. (We had a mild blizzard and a good amount of snow, so we are all home. No work or school aka daycare) Because I hadn't drank anything warm to clear my band and open it up, it took me a while to drink my shake. I am pretty darn sure I will have a good amount of restriction. I won't be suprised one bit if the amounts I have eaten before are a long gone distant memory. Sorta looking forward to seeing what my capacity is now.....gonna stick to liquids for at least lunch. Not sure about dinner, but I won't be suprised if I give it a full day of liquids. It's super easy. I may give soft protein a whirl.

I don't have a single bruise. I have not had any bruising with any of my fills. It is really simple. The needles are large but don't hurt. A small pinch and a bit of pressure. That is it.

Okay peeps! I did it! I made it a week. I was so happy to pee and be able to step on the scale this morning! Not only did it feel good to have my feet back on the scale. I am happy to say I am 233.9! Ya-hoo Baby! I hope someone chimes, it here to say how there week has been. It feels a bit lonely.

OMG! OMG! OMG! I am SO HAPPY! My scale said 233.9 yes, that is right! 233.9 I am in the lower 230's! I may be able to break out of the 230's by Christmas! I love it. I knew my body felt different! YES! It felt so good to step on that scale this moring! I do love my scale and when it gives me a great reading, I heart it even more.

Hello to all my forum friends! I had my 5th fill yesterday. It was by far the best one yet! I got an additional .4 cc's. (I have a 10 cm 4 cc band.) I wanted to put the numbers info up front, cuz I am going to get a bit lengthy in the post. I do have restriction; I got it with my 4th fill. Fills #1,2, and 3 did provide me with a level of restriction that would last 1-2 weeks then *poof* disappear. Which was such a bummer. With each fill I would say, "I hope this is the ONE!" So when my restriction left.....I was sad. I have decided to stay local for my after care, I see a very nice group of surgeons and staff at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Although none of them are has handsome as the staff at the OCC. LOL I bought into a package deal there. So the first 4 fills with radiology cost 1200. Each addition fill now costs 125.00 so that is a very reasonable fee. The way the package was presented was that 4 fills would be a year's worth. In many cases I suppose that is a year's worth, but for me it has not been. I understand if I went back to the OCC I would pry would have had 3-4 fills. Staying local is my choice and very convenient for me and my family, as I am a mother to a toddler! LOL I don't mind not getting as aggressive of a fill is what the OCC's is able to dial into…well kind of….LOL. Slow and steady wins the race, but the sometimes I forget about being a tortuous. The gal who did my fill was pretty nice, I blogged about my grr moment, so I won't include that here. I will say that she had difficulty accessing my port. I think she was hitting the edge. She probed around and pushed pretty hard, she really didn't want to stick me twice. I reassured her that it really didn't matter to me. I don't have a fear of needles and it really doesn't hurt. Not to mention the stomach is the best place to be poked anyway. That being said, when she pulled the needle out it was bent all to shit. Ha! After getting another needle, she took a deep Zen like breath and went at it again. This time she hit the mark! YAY! Over all it was not bad. The worst part was the questioning me like I was not being 100% truthful. (Which I will say that I understand, and am actually glad she took the time to probe me further, as most health care professionals treat you more like a ticket with a number on it. NO OFFENSE TO THE HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS ON THIS BOARD.) As I watched the barium flow down my esophagus and into my stoma then draining into my stomach it was a slower drain! Woo hoo! Fills # 1-3 the fluid went through a lot easier. So it was nice to see it moving a little slower! Eureka! LOL She told me I would be able to notice a difference with this fill. That brings me to ...... what have I noticed if anything....well let me tell ya. (see I told ya it would be long) I went back to work and fixed myself less than a cup of soup for lunch. I really didn't want to push it. I didn't feel full, but hey it's liquid. I did feel satisfied. For dinner I had a protein shake made with skim milk, water, ice, and banana. Yummo! When I woke this morning....at 4:30....ugh. (Lisa next time I can't sleep I am going to check and see if you are up!) LOL My stomach was growling and talking up a storm. It was sort of weird though cuz it wasn't like I was starving. I made some coffee for hubby and I. One drink and the talking stopped. I did not notice a tightness, but I was sipping so it is hard to tell if I had a good level of restriction. I didn't eat lunch until 3 ish. Wasn't hungry and I wasn't paying attention. (What! Not eating till mid afternoon…this my friends IS a change.) For supper I had a protein shake with a few strawberries and a 1/3 of a banana, ice, water, and skim milk. Again, I didn't feel full but it's liquid so what am I going to say??? I am excited to unleash my scale woochie tomorrow! YAY! It's Wednesday Weigh in and my first week of staying off the scale. Yahoo! Baby! I have almost done it! I hope each of you who took the challenge have had a good week. I know it is hard, and one of the top reasons I have made this a successful week is the fact that you were doing it with me! So thanks sooo very much for helping me to break a cycle and find some balance. One week down, more to go. If you didn't make it, don't beat yourself up. The new week is about to begin! Which means a fresh start! Woot! Back to the fill. I will be on liquids again tomorrow. They recommend at least two days of liquids after a fill. So I am following the rules. Besides that it does a wonderful job of jump starting weight loss which I would be thrilled to have! I would love to be in the lower 230's by Christmas time! This fill has been super easy for me to stick to liquids because I am simply not hungry. I am hoping for the magic on this fill! Over all I do believe this one will get me to a place where I can be content for a while. I say that without being on solids yet. How can I say that, well it's simple? My 4th fill gave me restriction that stayed. I was able to eat more than a cup depending on the food, so no matter what I will have better restriction than I had and the point is I had restriction! Happy with this fill. * PS I forgot to mention I was on my period. Started on Friday. Still had a good fill.

Evette - you are smoking hot! LOL Thanks for your reply and encouragment. I've become a scale whore and am trying to reform. So hard.....oh boy. The less I step on the scale the more I notice I don't have as many cheats....seems I was rewarding myself with food.....gah I am working on doing something new here.....not the same ol thing. I started this challenge last week...so far so good. It's good to have some positive pressure. I can't wait to see the results tomorrow. I feel a big change. I know i lost inches in not lbs this week! Victory! Woot!

Well I hope all goes well and it is the BEST possible outcome. I know you are right with building up.....I think I am doing good with having patients....then.....a rant. LOL Well let me tell ya, I love this band and am So grateful to have it. I would be interested to know what is up with your and the band. Thinking good thoughts for you!

Okay ladies and gentleman......one more day to wait. It has been hard. Especially with me getting a fill yesterday. I always like to "know" how much I weigh when I have a fill. I stayed true though. I feel a bit better it's not as hard to walk by the scale.....well kinda.... How is everyone doing....hanging tough or trying to put a day together at a time??? No one has been saying much, so I am left wondering. I know this is hard for me and you. So spill it. On a side note, I did get weighed at the Dr. but they do kg there and I didn't pay enough attention to what the scale said to remember. So I am wondering if I should use my last Wed's weight or this Wed weight. I suppose it's apples to apples, but I am still left wondering. Any thoughts??

B - coffee with ff cream protein shake