Happy New Year!!!

Above is a photo of Times Square . . which I will be avoiding tonight like the plague!! It is (brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!) freezing out tonight and very windy! Even inside my cosy apartment, I can hear the wind whistling outside and the building is creaking a bit as it sways (don't worry . . it's supposed to do that, apparently. . !)

I am heading out to my friend Erika's apartment in about 40 minutes for a dinner party/celebration. I'm bringing two very nice bottles of wine -- a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa and a Pinot Noir from The Eire Vineyards in Oregon. My goals for tonight are twofold -- (1) Not to freeze my behind off outside; and (2) not to drink too much wine. I'm EXTREMELY nervous about the idea of having a hangover with the band, which is bound to keep me honest.

At this point in my Bandland, I am 2 months and 9 days post-op. Here is how I am feeling:

* I have decent restriction (though I think a wee bit more would be even better);

* I still have shoulder pain from time to time, though it doesn't last very long and isn't anything near as painful as it was post-op;

* I've completely changed my approach to breakfast and have made great strides in changing my overall approach to portion size (I was generally a healthy eater before);

* I could be doing much better on the exercise front, and will work on that in the months to come;

* I am down (!!!) 18.4 lbs -- Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!

* I am so glad that I got banded -- I know that I would not be this close to 20 lbs down and still so motivated to keep going if not for my band;

* I've found that the hardest part about being banded was Bandster Inferno, and that the food thing really isn't that big of a deal to me;

* I can actually SEE a difference in my body when I look in the mirror, and my face looks much thinner and better!

* I'm a little worried about what all this weight loss is going to do to "the girls" (God, I hope my Dad isn't reading this one) but so far, so good; and

* It's been a real pleasure to find so much solidarity with other Bandits!

It's going to be an amazing year, and I can't wait to see what wonderful things it has in store for me. I hope it has much happiness, great health, love and friendship in store for all of us.

Happy New Year!!

It's a Christmas Miracle!!!

I got back from visiting my brother's family in South Carolina last night . . . after a 3 hour flight delay and a 30 minute cab line wait. Was very happy to be home after all of that!

So. . . how did I do over the holidays?? Well, I wasn't perfect -- but I did pay attention to what I was eating and the fill in my band forced me to keep my portion sizes small. However, (Confession Time. . . ) I just couldn't (OK, didn't want to) resist the home made cookies entirely. . . One of my uncles made these AMAZING home made chocolate chip cookies with pecans. . . and my sister-in-law made her famous neapolitan cookies (a row of pink dough, a row of brownie-like dough and a row of normal cookie-colored dough. That said, over the entire holiday, I probably had 8 cookies, whereas in years past, I probably would have had more like 4-5 per day -- plus wine every night . . and plus larger serving sizes at most meals.

One thing I should say is that I haven't told my brother about my surgery yet. I don't have any worries about whether he'd be supportive -- I know he would be. It's just that I don't feel like telling my sister-in-law about it at this point (or possibly ever), and I don't think it's something that I could reasonably expect him not to ever tell her. I just told them both that I've been watching my weight, let them know I'm down more than 15 lbs, and mentioned that taking time to properly chew my food is part of my weight-loss strategy. That actually worked out well, since it let me be careful when I wanted, but also didn't open my food choices up to extra scrutiny.

So, at meal times, I focused on chewing my food carefully before swallowing, which let my one reasonable serving last the whole meal every time. I wound up being the last person to finish at pretty much every meal. Now that I have a decent fill, I tend to get a little bit stuck at the beginning of every meal. It's not terrible -- and I can sit there and look normal while this is going on, but it's just really uncomfortable. I generally just found an excuse to get up from the table and get something for one of the kids when this happened, so that the stuck feeling could pass without me having to sit in front of my plate, not-eating. After that, I'm generally fine (and possibly more careful) for the rest of the meal.

Also, I noticed that by the time I got hungry, I was generally really hungry -- and even got into the "Danger Zone" twice. (The "Danger Zone" is the point when I'm so hungry that I get really, really grouchy. . . not a good look!) When I'm at home, I would have been less self-conscious about just getting a bite or two of cottage cheese or something to keep me from getting that hungry.

This morning I got on the scale to see how I'd fared. I really didn't know what to expect from the scale today -- on the one hand, I was very good (small portions, generally good food choices, largely avoided liquid calories) -- but on the other, I wasn't perfect (cookies. . . and having to have pizza one night when the restaurant choice wasn't in my hands -- I just ate the topping and left the crust). Want to know how it went??

I'm down another 1.8 lbs!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY, CHRISTMAS!!!

This is definitely a first!! I don't think I've ever actually LOST weight during Christmas vacation! I am totally giving my band a big hug right now . . well, in my mind, anyway! :)

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!

I'm heading to South Carolina tomorrow for Christmas with my brother and his family! Really looking forward to seeing everyone, especially my niece & nephew. I probably won't post while I'm away, but will plan to take some photos and catch up next week.

Best wishes for a very happy and healthy holiday!

Full pool!

I said something about having empty pool syndrome before and realized that I never explained what I was talking about. This comes from a post that I read on LapBandTalk.com -- someone analogized the time between surgery & the first fill to having a great new swimming pool, but no water in it. Well, I'm very happy to say that there is water in my pool! :)

(Catherine & Sharon - Greve, Italy - 2005)

Above is a photo of me in one of my favorite pools ever -- it's at an old castle in Tuscany that is now a hotel (Castello Vicchiomaggio in Greve). The first time I went there was in 2005, when I went to Italy with two of my best girl friends (Sharon & Nadia), and we met up with five other friends there and rented a farmhouse on the property. What a blast! The summer before last, two of the friends from the earlier trip (Sharon & Scott) got married at the castle, so I went back with my (now-ex) boyfriend and a bunch of our other friends for the ceremony. It was really a fantastic trip. (at dinner in Greve - 2005)

Anyway, the pool at Vicchiomaggio is spectacular -- it's an infinity pool that looks over the Tuscan countryside. That's how I am picturing my band, now that I've got a bit of a fill going on! Here is another shot of that pool. I'm practically drooling -- there is snow on the ground here in NYC, and its' been raining on & off all morning!
The scale is still down 15.2 as of this morning. I'm happy to stay at that weight for a few days before it moves again, since it tells me that the loss wasn't a fluke!


(And, just for fun, here is a photo of us in the town square in Greve for Sharon & Scott's wedding in the summer of 2007!)

Down another 1.2 lbs!

Man, this restriction stuff is great! I had to go to my office's Christmas party last night, and it was a bit hard to find "mushy" hors d'oeuvres. I wound up just having mainly cheese without crackers, but it was fine and I don't think anyone noticed that I was eating a bit strangely. I like the restriction -- it's making things so much easier.

BTW, this is a landmark day because I'm officially down 15 lbs! In fact, I'm down 15.2! Woo-hoo! :)

Restricted Area!

I'm still on liquids today, following fill no. 2, but I did have a thicker soup (pureed turkey chili) for dinner, and I noticed that it was not going down the same way as before. As of right now, swallowing a thicker soup feels a little bit like when you drink something when you have a sore throat. Not the hurting-your-throat part -- it's more that I just am more aware of it going down. Also, the sensation isn't in my throat, it's more inside my stomach at the site where my band is.

It's definitely interesting and a little weird, but not bad. I'm noticing that I'm getting full a lot faster and that I can get a little stuck. The stuck feeling I've had is really mild -- so maybe it's not a "stuck" feeling, but more of a theres-food-waiting-to-go-down kind of feeling. It's a little uncomfortable, but nothing all that bad.

After this morning's scale victory, I'm feeling excited and motivated about my future with the band, and like things are finally on their way. Everything pretty much had stalled, in terms of weight-loss, from the point when I got on solids until my first fill, so it feels very good to know that I'm back on track.

I'm back in the game, people!!!

Yesterday I went for fill no. 2. Strangely, when my doctor looked at how much saline was in my band, there were only .7 ccs in it -- instead of 1.7 ccs. She told me not to worry -- and that saline could be stuck in the tube due to the band being at low pressure after the operation. Honestly, given that it was exactly 1 cc missing, it sounds more to me that she may have accidentally only put .7 in the first time. What are the chances that I'd have low pressure (or a leak - yikes!) that would take out exactly 1 cc to the dot?

In any event, we'll monitor this next time I go to the doctor. Right now, I have a 2cc fill in my 5 cc band. I'm on liquids until tomorrow, then have 2 days of mushies, so I won't know for a few days what the fill is really like. However, I can tell that there is at least some more restriction.

I've been really focusing on my diet lately and (!!) finally!! The guilty five are all off and a bit of one of their friends is gone too! As of this morning . . . . I am at my all-time lowest post-op weight and am down 14 lbs in total. Woo-hoo! :) It's working!!

Season's Fillings!

I've been MIA for a few days, mainly because I haven't really had anything to report. My first fill of 1.7 ccs was definitely not enough to get me to good restriction -- not even close. I'm going back for my second fill today and am ready to get going already!

I'm happy to report that I've been pretty good on my diet lately, despite that I've been running on nothing but will power for about 3 weeks. Almost all of the "guilty five" from Thanksgiving are off -- I have just one pound left before I'm back to my lowest post-op weight. I'm really hoping to take that one off this week!

Above is a photo of my current-favorite ornament on my tree! I grew up living all over the place (London, Holland, France, New Jersey, Saudi Arabia and Texas -- and Texas is the place I lived the longest . . before I moved to NYC! Since college, I've lived in D.C., NYC and even spent a year in the Bahamas working on-site for a client. Anyway, I love this Texas boot -- it's so festive and colorful, and it looks great on the tree! I got it at a store in Houston called Events -- GREAT store!

The Empty Swimming Pool Effect . . .

Yesterday, I was back on mushies for the first time after my fill. Unfortunately, it seems like 1.7 ccs isn't going to take me to good restriction, so I'm going to go back to my doctor as soon as I can for another fill. I really couldn't tell a difference between 1.7 ccs and no ccs in the band -- though I was certainly chewing very carefully.

Will let you know if it's any different after the next day or two!

Congratulations to April & her husband on getting banded!

Finally! My First Fill!

At long last, I had my first fill today! I was going crazy in Bandster Inferno, so I'm happy to finally be on my way on the real weight loss part of this journey!

Before my appointment with Dr. Ren this afternoon, she had me get an esophogram on another floor at the NYU Hospital. It's very cool -- they uploaded the images onto the NYU intranet, so Dr. Ren was able to pull up the images from my esophogram on her computer during my appointment. I was able to see my band inside me on the picture. She said that the placement is just where it should be, which I expected -- but it was nice to hear!

Before she did the fill, I asked her not to be too conservative & told her I was ready to get going already! So, she gave me 1.7 cc, whereas she usually starts people off with 1 cc. BTW, I have a 9.75 cm Inamed Lap-Band, which has a 5 cc balloon. I'm now on 2 days of full liquids, followed by 2 days of mushies.

I had lunch after my fill -- a medium soup -- and couldn't tell any difference. BUT, when I got home tonight, I pureed some of the turkey chili I made over the weekend (sorry I didn't take photos!) and had it for dinner. It was a little thicker than the soup I had for lunch, and I could feel that I have more restriction (unless I'm totally imagining things!). Interesting!

BTW, I am very proud of myself for using my leftover Thanksgiving turkey (which I'd frozen) in two soups that I made over the weekend. I made the soup with green chiles and low fat cheese that I posted about before, substituting turkey for chicken, and also made a chili with turkey, & chipotle peppers. Both turned out nicely, and I feel good about not wasting any of that organic, free-range turkey!

'Tis the season!

Let me start this day by giving mad props to my mother, who is an extremely talented present-wrapper! I received these two presents this morning and they were so beautifully wrapped that I had to take a photo! The picture doesn't really do them justice, but I'll post it nonetheless. :)

Also, I am now going to enter the territory of bloggers-who-put-photos-up-of-their-cats. I can't help it. How freaking cute is Max? Does anyone else think he might benefit from lap band surgery? j/k

An observation I made this morning is that, six-weeks post-band, I've completely changed my approach to breakfast. Pre-band, I would usually pick up a bagel with butter and a large coffee with skim milk on my way into the office every day. Now, I consistently have -- and enjoy just as much -- either a vanilla SlimFast (yum) or (like this morning) some cottage cheese, or yogurt. Seems to have become a habit, and one that I hope will be life-long!

Bandster Inferno!!

One of the things that, somehow, I managed to overlook before getting banded is that most people go through a phase -- commonly known as "bandster hell" -- during the time between their operation and their first fill. Personally, I prefer Bandster Inferno because, while evocative of the hell experience, it still conveys optimism that the whole thing could turn out to be as fun as a disco -- The Studio 54 of WLS!

All disco festiveness aside, this is a period -- that I had no idea would exist -- when I can eat whatever the heck I want (steak, bread, turkey, stuffing, rutabegas!), as long as I don't try to do so without chewing like a civilized person. So, after four disciplined weeks of liquids and mushies, at some point during weeks 4 and 5, there is time when most bandsters are on normal foods but have no restriction. This is still during the "healing" phase, so you're not supposed to be too tough on yourself. Nonetheless, it's six weeks after you let your body be cut open for WLS and not a whole lot of WL (weight loss) is happening -- or, if it is, it's with some serious struggle!

Anyway, in the interest of full disclosure, I just wanted to get this out in the open. Also, I still occasionally (maybe 3% of the time, if that) have some shoulder pain. Very annoying. I hope it's 100% cleared up shortly. Currently, it's nothing like it was after surgery, but it's still a bit painful and irksome.

Not to be a bummer with this post, but I'm hoping that I'll later feel like bandster inferno was the awkward adolescence of my post-band period. Here's to Tuesday's fill! :)

As an aside, I saw some very helpful posts about bandster inferno on lapbandtalk.com tonight -- from people who experienced this at first, but who are now near their goal weight. Oh, how I hope to be posting like that next year and helping other newbies!!

Positive development. . .

The scale may be my friend again! Today 2.4 lbs of my "guilty five" are off. WHEW! Hopefully the other 2.6 will come right off as well. That freaked me out to see the number so high again!! I'm just back on my normal band diet -- not doing anything extreme.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast: Slimfast shake
Lunch: A little risotto with butternut squash and asparagus
Dinner: Salmon & rutabega (OK, maybe I do like them after all!)
Snack: A lowfat yogurt

Um, Yikes.

Well, I braved the scale this morning and the results were not pretty. The scale jumped up five pounds from my lowest post-op weight (and 3 lbs since my last weigh-in). I'm not surprised by this, but it was a good wake-up call for me. I have 9 more days of this unrestricted, pre-fill, period to go, and this should keep me on the straight and narrow.

Funny -- this is probably longer than I've stayed on most diets in recent years. In the past, getting derailed on Thanksgiving probably would have been my excuse for giving up on a diet. Not this time, though!! Fingers crossed that the "guilty 5" will come off as quickly as they came on. . .

Post Thanksgiving Confessions . . .

I have good news and bad news to report. . . The good news is that I ate less during Thanksgiving weekend this year than I have in years past. The bad news is that I did not follow my 1000 calorie diet at all throughout the weekend. Having no restriction in my band, there was nothing but will power standing between me and food & wine a'plenty . . . and will power was there in low grade supply. . .

I may wait a few days before getting on the scale, and I'm bracing myself for a number I'm not going to like. Nonetheless, I'm back on the wagon as of this morning and any pounds I put back on during the past few days will be off again before long.

On the bright side, I had a really great holiday. My sister was in town with my adorable 2 1/2 year old nephew, and we had a blast together. With respect to food, my favorite thing that I made was a pumpkin and brown sugar creme brulee (recipe was from the November Bon Appetit -- it's definitely not diet friendly). It was even better than I'd hoped -- to the point that my home made apple pie went largely untouched and no one ate any ice cream. (I strategically decided to dump the remainder of the pie in the trash after I packed up the last leftover box and had one of my friends take the container of ice cream home with her -- definitely wasn't going to blow it big time by eating that stuff!)

Speaking of leftover boxes, here is a photo of the ones I made for my guests -- it was a great size for holding a bit of everything! I "cut" my last name out of the label before posting this photo, which is why there is a big blank spot.

This year was the first time I ever made an entire turkey all by myself. I splurged and got an organic, free range turkey through Williams Sonoma, and I brined it in a bath of buttermilk and spices for about 30 hours before cooking. It was very flavorful and not at all dry (whew!). I put a photo at the beginning of this post.

I also ultimately decided to do an appetizer and served some of that yummy butternut & acorn squash soup that I blogged about a while ago (I made a new batch). I didn't want to stuff everyone, so I served just a taste, in cute little shot glasses that I picked up at Crate & Barrel. This is how the table looked before we sat down:

I won't put pictures of everything up, since I'm really trying to focus on band-appropriate food in this blog. Plus, I don't want to make people crave things they aren't supposed to have! However, I will put up a photo of (what else?!) the rutabegas!! I only made 2 of the 5 that I bought, and we still had leftovers! Here they are just before they were cooked & mashed!

I hope everyone had a very happy, healthy Thanksgiving!

Some Rutabega Silliness

Growing up in my house, every year, my dad had one big job on Thanksgiving and Christmas. He'd start by going to the store and buying up basically every rutabega they had. (Generally, that was not that many, since they don't really taste that great and aren't big sellers!) :)

On the day of the holiday, my dad spends most of the morning laboring over the rutabegas. He painstakingly & meticulously peels them (nightmare task -- they are really hard!). . . then chops them (also not easy) . . . then puts them in a giant pot to boil away for 20-30 minutes under his keen supervision, and then he mashes them up like the rutabega-loving connaisseur he is!

After all that Herculean effort, we generally have enough rutabega to feed a small army. Once Dad's masterpiece is put on the table, everyone in my family eats roughly 25% of a teaspoon full, and after the dinner, we bag and freeze the leftovers. They really are a delightful orange and give some much-needed color to the freezer, where they remain, largely untouched! Just before Christmas each year, we have the ritual Throwing-Out-of-the-Thanksgiving-Rutabega-Left-Overs. And then, some time into the new year, the same happens to the Christmas ones. I know this is wasteful and may not sound as funny as it is to us, but trust me -- the family rutabega rituals are one of the best parts of the season! We pretty much tease my dad about it all year long, which is a lot of fun.

So, this year, since my sister will be with me, I clearly must have rutabegas! However, in the spirit of not being wasteful, I figured that I'd just get a small number of them -- say, 4 or 5 -- so that we wouldn't have a lot of left overs. Since I live in NYC, I do a lot of my grocery shopping on-line and have it delivered. So, I put in my order and . . lo & behold. . . 5 rutabegas were in my order. Five MASSIVE freaking mutant rutabegas!! They are the biggest ones I've ever seen in my life!!

That's a NORMAL SIZED apple. . . !!

I took the above photo and sent it around to my whole family, which resulted in everyone basically laughing their heads off and sending me suggestions about what to do with the surplus! I got a few alternative ideas as well . . and sent the following around to the family on Monday . .

Who knew?! Rutabegas make an attractive and SUBSTANTIAL holiday centerpiece
Their surprising weight also makes them excellent doorstops!

. . . And paperweights

Not to mention that they really are fantastic posture-Improvement Devices! (Tough to get good photo when fearful of ginormous root vegetable falling and smashing toes. . ) :)

Um, anyone need any rutabegas? :)

Preparing for Thanksgiving

As you might have guessed, I love to cook. So, this year, I'm very excited to be preparing my first complete Thanksgiving meal totally on my own! My sister and cutie-pie nephew (2 1/2 years old) are coming in from D.C., and my friend Marjorie is going to join us as well. Being that it's Thanksgiving, I'm going to make all of our family favorites and will focus on portion control during the day.

I did decide not to get too crazy with appetizers and hors d'oeuvres -- we are three women at dinner this year, and none of us wants to be totally stuffed before we even sit down to dinner. So, here is what I'm planning to make:

Hors d'oeuvres (to be put out in little bowls for grazing)

Goat cheese-stuffed medjool dates (warm)
Olives, artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers
(I'm not trying to starve everyone -- I swear -- just didn't want to stuff them!)

Main course
Turkey
Stuffing
Cranberry sauce (the recipe on the Oceanspray package is amazing -- will never buy it pre-made again!)
Rutabegas (like a turnip -- it's a family tradition -- more on that next time!)
Mashed potatoes
Green beans
[I think that's it -- I think sweet potatoes and/or squash on top of all this would be too much -- we're only 3 people!]

Dessert
Home made apple pie
Pumpkin creme brulee

What do you think? Did I forget anything important? Is this enough? I purpously am not making rolls this year. Anything else I should consider making?

Fill 'er up!!

I'm now just over a month post-op! I'm feeling really good, have lost almost 14 lbs (I'm ignoring my scale this week -- no change since my last count) and made it through my post-op 2 weeks of full liquids and 2 weeks of mushies.

So! Now I'm on a "normal" diet and feel no restriction at all. I've been doing my best to really watch what I'm eating and to keep the calories down. By and large, I've been doing a decent job of that. HOWEVER, I'm eager to get into the real weight loss phase! Bring on the fill!


My doctor's instructions are to wait until 6 weeks after surgery before your first fill, so I have to wait a bit longer. My first fill date is 6 weeks & 4 days after my surgery date, and I am really looking forward to it. I know that it will be another big adjustment, but I'm ready.

Before surgery, I printed out a calendar from October through May and marked down different milestones on it. My band date is there, my full liquids phase, the mushies, Thanksgiving (which is about a week into "regular diet" for me -- "regular" meaning as close to 1000 calories as I can manage), my 2 month anniversary, etc.

When I was deciding which date to have my surgery, I hesitated at the October date. I thought -- oh no! What will I do on my birthday!? And how will I get through Thanksgiving?! I was so worried that I'd feel really deprived and that everyone would notice how I was eating and that I'd feel very conspicuous. In retrospect, none of these things were that big of a deal. As you probably saw from my b-day post, the band didn't hold me back from enjoying my friends & the celebration. As for Thanksgiving, the only challenge will be to hold myself back so that I don't overdo it on the fixings!

In retrospect, what I should have focused planning on was what I was going to do during the several post-op weeks when I have no restriction and an appetite! Still, I am managing well and feel like I'm doing a respectable job of it.

Also -- I managed to get in the bike on Saturday & Sunday, so I'm feeling good about that! I'm going to try to do more this week in preparation for Thanksgiving!

Jane Fonda would not be impressed. . .

OK, confession time. I'm not sure what my problem is, but I've been really bad about exercising post-op. This morning, I skipped my yoga class (the first of a new series), despite that I was awake and - um - it's in the gym in my building. . WTH? I love yoga!

If I'm being totally honest (and why bother blogging if I'm not going to do that. . ), I was a little worried that after several weeks of not going, that I wouldn't be as good at keeping up & doing the various poses. But that's no reason not to go! Not sure what is wrong with me -- I need to just force myself to go (I can do a make-up class any morning this week) and get back in the swing of things.

In the meantime, I'm going to sign off now and do 30 minutes on my stationary bicycle. At least that way I will get something in today!

Sorry Jane. . .

The Mederma Challenge . . .

I finally got my act together and bought some Mederma scar fade cream at the drugstore yesterday. I'd love for my two surgery incisions (thank you, Dr. Rumbaut!!) to fade to nothing, if at all possible. Mederma was a bit expensive -- around $24 or so for a little tube -- but I've heard from a few people that it's the best product to use. And, let's face it -- if I can fade those scars for only $24, that sounds like a bargain.

So, here' s a photo of my incisions as of yesterday (remember -- Dr. Rumbaut did my surgery with only two incisions -- I love that man -- which is why you're only seeing two here.) There's another shot of them, avec belly button, in an earlier post, just in case you want some context.

I'll post another photo alongside this one in a month or so, for comparison purposes. Fingers crossed that this stuff really works!