BrownEyedGirl

I tend to keloid and for now am trying Mederma and bio-oil. Dr. So recommended Conractubex but that's only available in Canada and Mexico. I guess it's like Mederma but with Heparin in it. I'm going to try to get some when I get my fill. I'm pretty amazed at how good the incisions look. Nice and clean. I hope Kristi doesn't mind me saying this, but she showed me her incisions yesterday and I couldn't see them.

Thanks for posting. That information is very helpful and encouraging. After hearing about how much weight people who had surgery around the same time as me have lost, I'm wondering if I'll be a slow loser too. I just wanna be a loser!! Never thought I'd say that. Congrats!

*smacks lips* deli haaaaaam... mmmmm day 19 of liquid diet. deliiiiii haaaaaaam. oooOOOOooooOOOooh.

I'm wondering about that myself. I'm still on liquids and surprisingly regular, always was. I'm hoping that doesn't change after I start on solids. I've got fiber stuff to add to my vittles just in case.

That's great news! You are an inspiration to so many. To be an inspiration to have a healthier life, what a blessing. You'll also be able to help her stay on track.

I plan on making mini quiches and freezing them. I found these recipes and they sound great. If you scroll down you'll see more recipes and if you click on the words "breakfast-on-the-go" you'll get more ideas. I loved her idea of a bento box so much I went out and bought one and look forward to packing pretty little portions. http://theworldaccor...etti-bites.html I get to eat on Friday!! Update: I found these Breakfast Bites on her site: http://theworldaccor...fast-bites.html Ooo! Another update: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2008/02/breakfast.html That page has some of her favorite breakfasts mentioned.

194.6. Not bad for 2.5 weeks. That's almost 11lbs lost since surgery. I'm not including the 10lbs I lost pre-op. I may start weighing in on Fridays since I had my surgery on a Friday. It's easier for me to handle the math that way. But then again we're all weighing in on Wednesday. Oh well.. I'll try to figure it out.

Where are the scars on the medial thigh lift? Is that for the inner thigh? Mine are lookin' kinda skeery now. Not sure how they'll look 60 lbs down from now.

I have no regrets about going to TJ for my surgery. I think I wrote about it in my blog for day 17. I think it sums up my experience so far pretty well.

At one time I had 10-15 lbs to lose. Then 30-40. Then 70. Then over 100. Then early last year back down to 30. Then a few months ago back up to 80. I don't know the back story of some of these people with only 40-50 lbs to lose but they may have lost that 40-50lbs over and over only to gain some back then lose some and gain again. I was 170 lbs just over a year ago only to go up to 215 in less than a year. I knew I'd be 300lbs eventually. So, at a weight of 170, with only 30-40lbs to lose, I would have had the surgery. I was struggling just to maintain that. Obviously I lost the struggle because I ended up at 215 when I scheduled the surgery. There's my two cents.

First, you've nothing that isn't covered by the cross. Read Psalm 51 keeping in mind what David had done and was still able to ask for forgiveness. David was called "a man after God's own heart". Psalm 16:2 is a good example of why. Like you, I'm on the liquid phase of the diet and realizing just how I've let food become so much to me. I even passed up going to a movie because I couldn't eat popcorn. I wasn't hungry, I just don't know how to enjoy a movie without food. It sounded boring. I may go just to do it. We have bad habits, practices, and attitudes we need to repent and turn from. We can do it. We have to. I'll be blogging soon about some news I got tonight. A dear friend is in the hospital with only a 50% chance of getting out. Why? She's obese and her problems are piling up. She says she's tired of fighting and ready to die. She would never admit she had a problem and she would never do anything about it. Just kept gaining until she reached close to 400 lbs. I'm so sorry to hear about your husband. Let him act out. That's his sin and let God deal with him. Pray for him though. He needs it. I have the opposite problem with my husband. If it was up to him I'd only eat one ice cube a day. He wanted me to stay on clear liquids longer because I was losing weight so fast. From the start told him that I wouldn't be cooking dinner for 3 weeks and I haven't. He's cooked all dinners (save 1) and bought most of the food. Truthfully, I think I could have cooked without a problem but I'm enjoying the time off. Don't tell him that. Don't let your husband sabotage you. Pray for strength and for your husband to support you or at least get out of the way. And don't comfort yourself with food. One thing becomes obvious as you go through forums, not everyone is successful with the band. Let's not waste our money, effort, time, health, and lives on something that doesn't love us back. I'm talking about food. Go get 'em.

Let's keep that promise, Erica!

Ok.. I finally added to my blog giving my experience so far. I even was able to get on my high horse.

I've realized I'm not going to make my fortune in blogging. I don't know how people do it every day! What I've experienced so far on my 17 or so days of liquid diet is that I'm not very hungry. Oh, I wanted to eat out of boredom. I even passed up going to a movie because I don't know how to enjoy a movie without throwing a bucket of butter flavored napalm covered popcorn down my gullet. I now have to learn to enjoy a movie for the movie's sake. You know, I never realized how much I don't care for movies without munchies!! I've got to break this relationship with food. Like someone said, it's a "love affair". For all of you who are terrified of what's it's going to be like to not "eat" for 3 weeks all I have to say is, "meh, not that big of a deal". Boredom was the biggest problem. If I thought I was hungry I would really focus on my stomach and I realized my stomach felt full. I wanted different tastes so I made sure to have plenty of variety in the broth and creamy soup department. Popsicles too. I did get hungry one night and texted my husband that I was finally dealing with some hunger. He helped by bringing home about 6 slices of pepperoni, mushroom, sausage, and breakfast bacon pizza with chicken wings. I could smell it before I knew he brought it home. I ended up chewing on a piece of sausage and spitting it out. I closed off the back of my throat so none would go down and rinsed out my mouth afterward. I don't recommend doing that because one could "go all the way" so to speak. Kinda like kissing nekkie and saying that's all you're gonna do! For the most part though I was able to watch others eat and had NO desire to join them. I remember when I started suspecting that some of my newly skinny friends were not on the usual diet. Whenever food would come out they wouldn't whine about what they couldn't have or feel guilty about what they ate. There was no look of glee over the choices or look of longing over what they couldnt eat. The food was there and they took what they wanted when they wanted it and looked as if they could care less. There was no making sure they got their portion before the food ran out. That's how I feel now. For the most part I don't feel as if I'm missing out on anything and my hunger has been, for the first time, controllable!! Yay!! I just realized that. I feel in control of my hunger for the first time. If I feel a pang I drink some more water or eat a popsicle and it passes. I am aware that others have felt hunger. Some have truly felt stomach hunger but some said they realized it was head hunger. That's where you're just want to eat for no other reason than to put something yummy in your mouth and chew. I had that but I was able to manage it. I did add some clear seasonings to my broth to give it a different flavor (soy and fish sauce) and I got a wide array of creamy soups. Curry and Thai. No Mexican though. I couldn't find a Mexican flavored creamy soup. I looked for a cheese soup so I could add it to my tomato with beef granules and fool myself into thinking I was having pizza. My store didnt have cheese soup. I also looked for smooth creamy corn soup and thought to add some butter flavored extract. I'd take that to a movie and pretend it was popcorn. But alas, all corn soup is very chunky. Speaking of corn, I didn't realize how much I love corn. I had it in one form or another every day. Corn tortillas, popcorn, corn chips, corn nuts, corn corn chicken and corn, colonel's chicken and kernels of corn. Based on what I've read I might be allergic to it because I crave it so much. Though that never made sense to me. Ok, now about pain. I had very little right after surgery. Dumped the pills they gave me right away. But then I've had quite a few major surgeries. Back surgery to name one. I live with pain every day and the hardest thing was giving up my 9 Advil a day prior to surgery. So, maybe that's why the pain didn't seem so bad. However, I recently started getting a nasty pain in my port area. I'll call tomorrow to see if it's what I suspect. When I get up from bed it's as if I can feel gravity pulling my port down. I think while I'm laying still it's healing to a spot but when I get up and move it's kind of being torn from that spot. I'm sure in time it will anchor and heal. But for now.. ouchies. I took some kid's liquid Tylenol yesterday and put on a tight fitting tank top today to hold it in. That seems to do the trick. But nothing that I need pain meds for. So far, I don't regret anything about having this surgery. Except not getting it done sooner. But God's timing is perfect. Also, you will be surprised about who is supportive and who is not. But don't get into a family feud over it. I decided to tell people because a.) I didn't want to be in a medical emergency and not have those closest to me have that info b.) When people ask how I lost weight, and they will, I didn't want to lie. Though, I'm sure at some point my pride will get the best of me and I'll lie. To sum it up, (and to steal someone's quote) us fatties have a love affair with food. It gets in the way of our life. For some of us it replaces our lives. Food becomes our friend, our companion, our lover, our confidante. Hey, even our shopping buddy. Cinnabon or Auntie Annie's Pretzels anyone? C'mon, which of you hasn't gone to the mall and thought, "Ooo, I'll get that blouse I need and I'll stop by and say hi to Mrs. Fields!"? And don't tell me that all you eat is celery and you gain weight. Pfft. I don't believe it. Yes, you ate celery for lunch. But you also stopped and had a Big Mac with supersized fries and Coke on the way home. Just because you had a skinny lunch doesn't mean that the McDonald's meal didn't count. Take that story to a skinny person and maybe they'll believe it. I know. I'm mean. But we're killing ourselves with food and I'm tired of making excuses and I'm tired of hearing them. I just want to be healthy and fit into smaller jeans! Anywhoo.. that's it. Now get out and do something healthy for yourself!

dat's alotta reading for us ADD folks! What's the answer? I need CliffsNotes!

Ugh! I know how that feels. I remember getting a consult for a breast reduction and lift and crying my eyes out as the doctor took the pictures. I still haven't taken my before pics and I need too! With pre-op loss I'm 20lbs down. I do have some puffy faced pics from surgery day tho.

As I was reading about your Kimchee i was wondering how much sodium it has in it. I had my surgery just over 2 weeks ago and I noticed I'm retaining a lot of water when I have more than one salty thing in a day. I'm retaining far more than I did before and I imagine it will change once my diet is more balanced. Creamy soups are high in sodium. Anyway, I went to calorieking.com and found that while kimchee low calorie it's extremely high in sodium. One serving (1/2 cup) has 35 calories but 2,404 mg of sodium! 1/2 cup gives you 100% of the daily recommended allowance. So if you're eating a cup you are having 200%. Part of your problem could be water retention. I realized that I have to keep a food diary even on liquids. I lost less than I had expected last week and when I went back and counted how many cans of soup I had left I realized I ate more creamy soup than I had thought. You may want to make sure you write everything down just in case something sneaks past you. I popped something into my mouth while making my sons lunch, realized what I did, and had to spit it out.

Not sure if this counts but I smashed green onions to release the flavor and simmered them in beef or chicken stock and then removed them. I then added soy sauce and fish sauce to trick myself into thinking I was eating chinese food. I also added beef or chicken granules to the following: Curried lentil creamy soup to fake Indian food Creamy Lemongrass soup for Thai food I also froze protein shakes for fake ice cream. I froze clear Isopure protein drinks during the first week. They were easier to eat than they were to drink. Now if I could only get some liquid popcorn.

Sounds awesome! I'd love to go! D.

I know just what you mean. For some reason I was bandaged completely around my waist after surgery (I believe because they cut through existing scars and I was bleeding) and when they removed the bandages the next day it felt has if my stomach was hanging and pulling on the incisions. Not necessarily painful, but more uncomfortable than with the bandage. When I got home I thought of wrapping myself in my waist trimmer. I have one just like in the pics. The only thing is they make you sweat bad and I knew that would be bad for my incisions so I just left i found a cottton snug fitting tank and wore it a few times. For the most part it's ok but I do miss that bandage from time to time.

When you say you lost 27 lbs the first month, are you including the weight you lost on the pre-op diet or from your weight on the day of surgery?

I'm going to be adding to my blog later but you might want to read some of my entries. I had my surgery on 2/19 and have not had a hunger problem. Some have though.

198 even today. Down 2 lbs from last week, 7 lbs since surgery and 17lbs since pre-op diet. I'm not sure if I should have my surgery date weight or pre-op weight on my ticker. I'm kind of surprised I'm only down 2lbs seeing that I'm only drinking liquids. I imagine that being laid out in bed for 4 days with a cold and no exercise probably didn't help with weight loss. I'd normally be happy with a 2lbs loss but that's if I'm eating food. So, today I start logging my kefir and protein drink intake. I have been waking up puffy eyed the last 2 days as if I ate something salty.... I'm wondering how salty my creamy soups are. Oh well. I'll take the 2 lbs and keep track of what I'm eating and spend more time on the treadmill. Time for lunch!

Yes, throughout the entire presentation for me. It was garbled for a bit but the main problem was the sound. I had it on full volume the entire time and had to miss out on some of the great information because I had to get up from my desk from time to time. The information I did get was great and I look forward to next week's webinar.