Almost there

 Hello. I'm Joshlyn. I had LapBand on 11/25/09 the day before thanksgiving in 2009. I weighed in at 297.5 the morning of surgery. I'm currently 237 lbs.  I have yet to begin an exercise routine, and I kind of just eat whatever goes down. Since coming home w/ my parents for Christmas break from school I've had to eat healthier b/c my mom just had a revision from lap band(which had slipped) to gastric bypass. So she's changed her eating, but anyways I went from 242 to 237. 

I had said in the beginning that I wouldn't begin working out until my band had done most of the work, so now I feel like it's done just that and now I should start actually trying. 

When I get home a friend of mine is selling me the Wii Fit Plus game, and I already have the board and the original wii fit. 

I signed up for www.myfitnesspal.com. I have almost 2,000 calories a day, but I guess my "problem" is thatmy band is VERY particular. And really has a mind of its own and it doesn't really like for me to eat before 3:30 pm. I drink coffee nearly every morning. Like today I've had approximately(reallly less than) 160 calories and it's 2:06 pm

Should I be drinking protein shakes/smoothies? My original goal is to get down to at least 200lbs. If I go under, great, if not, oh well.

 Oh and I have about 3-4 cc's in my 10 cc band, and I go Monday to get another fill, which I haven't had a fill since May.

Hi Joshlyn,

Personally, I don't do shakes/smoothies because 'real' food satisfies me much more.
For example, the shake I like is 250 - 300 calories ---- for that amount, I can eat 6 oz of Greek Yogurt and then a small banana 2 hours later and feel much more satisfied.

Some people have difficulty eating in the early hours of the day, so protein shakes are a good choice for them ---

I would really try to get more calories into the first half of the day if I were you --- you really need fuel all day - and if you have had less than 200 calories by 2 pm -- and you eat 2,000 calories a day, that is a really bad ratio - and probably means that you are overeating in the late part of the day.

Good luck with the exercise

 If you're having that much difficulty eating/drinking before early afternoon.. are you sure you need another fill?

Yes, if you can't eat, you should consider doing protein drinks.  Our metabolism works better if we have some kind of breakfast.

Please talk to your nurses or other support staff at your surgeon's office about your eating patterns.

 agreeing with the rest- probably I would wait with that fill for a moment an rather speak to a dietician in you doctor's office. 
I couldn't eat breakfast either and told them basically what I eat daily and how much, and my problem was that I ate too much in the evenings. The dietician urged me to have breakfast- a smoothie, a yoghurt- something that "slides" through it- because your metabolism changes. She advised if you don't eat breakfast, your other meals will be bigger. So far I have to say she was right! try it :)

If you keep "regular ppl hours" and it's that long before you can eat, I think they are right about you being a little tight.

It's not good to go that long without eating. If you are not able to eat tha length of time do a protein shake after u get up. I am not a breakfast person, but since I had surgery I do eat when I get up or soon after. My husband is diabetic and his RN said for him to eat right after he gets up b/c when the body goes that long w/o eating the liver(r maybe it was the pancreas?) starts to dump sugar. Seems that this would be counterproductive to weight loss so I started eating when I get up

Well, I went to the doctor anyways. But unfortunately for ME, my doctor does the x-ray and barium swallow for fills, so no matter what I said to his face, my band wasn't doing any lying and once he saw how my band was draining on the x-ray, he said he was happy w/ how it was draining, and said he wasn't going to give me a fill. His office is now recommending www.myfitnesspal.com which I had just started using online. I owe iTunes $3 and my card only has $1.50 on it, so I can't update my current apps, nor can I download new apps, so right now I just have to use it online.

That was yesterday. Well today I took the nurses advice about getting more protein and calories in, so I drank a cup of coffee first thing after I woke up, then around 10:00-10:30 I had a protein shake. My first milk based protein shake. I used the Chike Very Vanilla, and it was great.

Now I'm working on my beloved creation my grilled cheese. It's a staple in my life. It's 635 calories, and 34g protein.