Ok ... so it's not THAT bad (referring to yesterday's post)

I was having a particularly frustrating day yesterday... As a result...my blog was a bit more negative than usual.

About the lap-band. It is a learning process. Unfortunately, I'm a SLOW learner. One key thing is to take very small bites ... chew very well ... and eat verly slowly. I'm learning to do that. I'm used to woofing down an entire hamburger in 4 or 5 bites ... not woofing down 4 or 5 bites in 30 minutes. Living in a "Fast food" society ... I've been conditioned to eat junk, eat fast, and go on with business. The luxury of taking a lunch hour has been just that. A luxury.

I'm finding that I have to make time to eat properly. I'm not accustomed to taking small bites .. I'm learning to do that. I'm not accustomed to taking TIME to eat .. I'm learning to take a bite...put down my fork...and chew/savor the food.

Luckily, I have a really good office staff at my Dr's office. I had the last actual fill on July 15 and my first decrease on July 17. Things seemed to be going well, and I had a follow-up appointment on August 14. After a support group meeting, and the appointment ... I made the choice not to have a decrease at that time ... since my issues seemed to be related to poor choices I made.

Here it is 2 weeks later, and I'm still having some issues.
My protein shakes stay down fine.
Soup stays down fine.
Hamburger meat stays down fine...as long as it is chewed well and not dry.
Tomatoes so far have been good to me (thank goodness ... right now I'm craving them more than chocolate).

It's when I get adventurous in my food intake that I have troubles. Point in case ... I was craving Mac and Cheese ... I've been craving it for a while ... so I decided to give it a shot. I ate about a tablespoonful ... Apparently I didn't chew enough (even though I thought I did) cause the noodles came back. The hamburger meat that I picked off the pizza at lunch ... didn't work either .. too spicy.

My food issues are mostly a result of Poor choices on my part.
So far most have been because I took that 1 extra bite, when I knew better.

The other issue I'm having is I can't get my Pro-times regulated for my Coumadin. I'm not at liberty to eat a bunch of green leafy veggies and broccoli because the Vitamin K in those products actually work against my Coumadin.

I do think my band is still a bit tight ... since I'm trying to be very careful with my food intake, and still having issues ... I made an appointment to have a little fluid removed from my band.

Regarding the Chinese adoption ... I'm still mad !!! But c'est la vie ... can't change it. SO ... I'm going to focus on getting Moon Festival running and LIVING my life.