♥LovetheNewMe♥

I know it is hard but you have to have some fiber in your diet. I tried the fiber tabs, chewable ones, two a day. I still seemed to have gas, and boy was it bad. I have started adding some oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast and this seems to help. Sometimes I think we focus so much on protein we do not do as well with veg, fruit and fiber. I use Gas-x to help with burping but if I eat past satisfied and to full I always burp, my friend gets the hiccups. Good luck with the exercise, every little bit counts, you will work up to more over time. Good luck and keep up the good work!

Happy Saturday bloggers! Hope everyone had a great week and did one thing for themselves this week. I have worked my "buns" off this week at Curves and on my treadmill. In the past week I have exercised 30 minutes every day and burned a total of 1830 calories. I have lost 1.4 lbs and a total of 8" in the past two weeks. It was so hard for me to get motivated over the past 8 months to exercise as usual I wish I had got off my butt sooner and started. Some mornings I do not want to roll my body out of bed but I do and it is paying off. So happy with the results so far. Tonight we are going out to dinner with friends to celebrate her 40th birthday. She is a gastric sleeve patient, about 2 months post op and has lost 30 lbs. We are going to a dinner theater. Looking forward to the evening with friends but always stress over what to eat. One good thing we can share a meal. Have a good weekend everyone and keep up the good work, remember we are all on a journey taking it one day at a time.

Totally understand your frustration. I am eight months out and have lost 70 lbs to date, I still have 38 lbs to lose and I say everyday these are going to be the hardest 38 lbs to lose. I exercise 5 days a week, started this religiously 3 weeks ago. I used to do the treadmill 3 days a week but it just was not getting it. I also started using myfitnesspal.com to track all of my calories and activity. I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong, eatting to much, not eatting enough, eatting the wrong things. I thought about tightening my band so I could eat less but glad I didn't. I decided to learn how to work with the band and not let the band do all the work. So currently 50% is me working hard and the other 50% is the restriction of the band. I do not snack, I eat 3 meals a day, I take 15-20 minutes to eat my meal and if there is anything left on my plate after 20 minutes I trash it. In the past 3 weeks I have lost 8 inches and lost 2.5 lbs. Now this is no where as fast as it was for me in the beginning but I now know I am doing everything I can to make the weight come off, I am changing my behavior towards food, making healthy choices. My co-workers laugh at me when they ask what I snack on I say my vitamins, I take soft chews and gummys and I split them up in 3 servings and feel like I'm getting a treat. So remember, slow weight loss is best (even though frustrating), the scales are not our friend because as we get smaller and exercise we start to build muscle and lose inches. Good Luck!

Great Post, I agree we do tend to beat ourselves up when the scales don't move. I loved the analogy, we should all try that and it may help us to add prospective to our weight loss. We become so focused on the scales and the numbers.

Good Luck

Consider the not drinking with your meals. I know you said your fill person says it's ok but honestly I know how hard it is to not drink but it really makes a difference if you don't drink 30 minutes before you eat and wait 30 to 45 minutes post eating. You fill satisfied longer and for the most part if you band is working like it was designed you can just eat 3 meals a day with out snacking. The band doesn't do all of it, your head has to learn to keep those thougts from sneeking back in. Try this web site for a week, www.myfitnesspal.com, log everything you eat and drink, log your exercise, don't eat the extra calories it adds back in and I bet if you do this you will start to lose again. The exercise will help a lot also, my first half of this year the weight really was falling off but now, I got to really work the program. Good luck and come back to the site we are all here off and on to help you make it to your goal. Good luck and keep going, look how far you have already come.

Congratulations Michael. You are doing fantastic, look forward to following you and watch you become a shadow of your formal self. :success1:

i read this last night on the internet, we love this show. I knew he was looking different but had no idea he had joined us here in bandster land. He looks great. Thanks for sharing.

You made me smile after a very hard day at work, with this type of attitude you will be successful. Thanks for sharing.

Very inspirational, thanks for sharing your fullfullment with us.

Thanks for sharing, it is so hard for us addicts to admit when we fall. But the key is we admit it, learn how to deal and move forward. I think the hardest thing for most of us is accepting that one bite will never be enough. Sometimes I think, life is so unfair, why can that skinny person eat what ever they want. But you know I bet they have their own demons to fight we just can't see them. Hope your next trip goes better, remember we take this one day at a time. Good luck.

Congratulations, we will be here waiting for you!

Great post! it is hard for all of us to admit that this is a tool and we still have to do a lot of the work ourselves.

Hi, everyone! Hope everyone had a great weekend and is doing well on this beautiful, hot summer day. This past weekend I have been doing a lot of soul searching about commitment and why I seem to be stuck for the past month when I felt I was doing everything right. The first 6-7 months after surgery I did well with my weight loss, I lost 1-2 lbs per week, had 2 fills, 1 unfill. I failed to exercise regularly as my doctor told me because I was not motivated, so basically the weight in the beginning dropped at a fast rate. But I weighted 248 lbs, 5'1" tall. (check out my photos I was quite the little butter ball) I ate around 800-1000 calories a day and tracked what I ate. I used the lap band web site, watched the videos, logged my foods, read everything I could get my hands on and participated in the forums. I was committed. I thought. Then I got comfortable, I looked better, felt better,and like I said things were going well. Then the weight slowed down, but I was still losing, so I started using the expensive treadmill I bought for Christmas, 2 or 3 days a week. I had pretty good restriction after my first fill, I had too much restriction with my second fill and they removed less than .4 of a cc. Some days I feel restricted, some days I can eat what ever I want. So over the past few weeks I asked myself, " Diane are your really committed to this journey, are you in it for the long haul" Boy is that an eye opening question. My answer is yes! So I had to recommit to why I started this journey, I look a lot better now, but seriously, I am still obese. Just not as obese as I was 8 months ago. I can wear a size 14 but a size 14 today is probably not what a size 14 was years ago. Let's face it guys as a society we have all gotten larger and so the designers have made the sizes fuller to growwwwwwww, with us. Sorry just a little play on words there. But honestly, I was fat so I feel I have the right to talk about myself and have an opinion. So how do I make sure I can keep this commitment to myself, because honestly in the past at about this time I start getting Bord with things and fat Diane would seem to resurface. I cannot let this happen this time, or maybe I should say I WILL not allow this to happen this time. So this is what I did this weekend to try and figure out why I seem to be sorta stuck, lose a pound, gain a pound, loss two pounds, gain one pound, loss nothing. What I committed to a month ago. 1. 2 weeks ago I joined curves, and I am proud to say I have went 4 days a week since I started. I got my curve smart key today and boy I thought I had been working out, well now I am really working out. 2. I committed to blogging and being honest with all of you, I have kept that commitment also, I make every attempt to blog my feelings at least weekly and I read the other blogs and comment to lend encouragement and honesty to others. Many of you have encouraged me, some directly and some indirectly. I find even though I have never met any of you formally, we all share so many experiences and we can learn so much form each others successes and failures. 3. I committed to writing down all of my food and not snacking between meals," the graze thing" boy I think this has been the hardest. I tired using the lap band web site to record and this wasn't working well for me, when I was at work I would write my food down and try and log it to the web site in the evenings. I wasn't always consistent. I had post it notes all over my office with bits of info on them of what I had eaten daily. I tried drinking protein for breakfast, no between meal snacks, increasing my protein, watching my carbs, looking at my fats, etc, etc. I thought about getting a fill so I would eat less, but realized over the 4th, I may not have total restriction but I was not listening to my band. I had fallen into the crutch of wanting my band to do the work not me. Now let;s face it guys, I loved food, I love to cook, I love to eat because no one gets as big as I did by just cheating a little. Seriously! Sorry for digressing. Like I said logging the food on the lap band site was not working well for me so by reading the forums' blogs and internet searches I found some answers I am going to try. Saturday, I did a lot of Internet searches; How many calories should a lap band patient eat?, How much protein should a lap band patient eat? How many carbohydrates should a lap band patient eat? How many calories do I need to decrease to lose 1 lbs a week? How many fewer calories do I need to eat to lose 2 pounds a week? What drives the metabolism, How do you jump start your metabolism? I am not sure but I am sure I did a few more I have forgot about by now. So what did I find, lots and lots of information. So what now? I think the best site I found, was right here on our own blogs. www.myfitnesspal.com The site is free, you plug in your height, weight and your life style. (Now be honest about the life style) You can tweak the protein to what we should eat, and there is a mobile application that you can use on your droid, I-phone, I-touch or blackberry. It is free, it will allow you to add stuff that isn't in the data base, build a recipe and calculate your servings. It tells you how much you should loss based on what you eat and exercise. Honestly, not sure what the long term result will be but it will also allow me to run a report I can take to my nutritionist for her to evaluate at my next visit. It adds your exercise points back in but I have decided to eat these for now to see how the next few weeks go. So what have I learned about myself over the past 72 hours, I am OCD big time. But I need to be OCD or I will never make it for the long haul. I have to hold myself accountable, I can not expect anyone else to do that for me. I can not lie to my self and I can not expect the band to do all the hard work. Some of the work is changing my own thought process about food and how I cope with life. Do I have restriction, yes if I listen to my band and to what I was taught. Eat off a small plate, cut my food into bite size pieces, chew each piece 20-30 times, lay my fork down between bites, eat at the dinner table NOT in front of the TV. If I finish my food under 20 minutes give my brain time to catch up with my stomach oh and lastly make healthy food choices and eat protein first. Now if I do all of those things I do have restriction and I am satisfied for 3-4 hours. Question is, do I feel full? The answer to that is no, but I feel satisfied with what I eat. I still measure all my food, eating 2-3 ozs. of protein at each meal, learning that a serving of vegetables is really 1/2 cup except lettuce of course. I will probably measure my food for the rest of my life because obviously I do not understand serving sizes. So guys I challenge all of you to commit to your self. Think about why you did this, it should have been for you. You are the only person you have to be honest with, you are the only person who knows what you put in your mouth everyday. You are the only one who really can answer the question."ARE YOU REALLY COMMITTED TO THE LONG HAUL?" We will have good days, great days, bad days and totally sucky days? We will lose weight, we will gain weight, we will stay neutral but what matters most is our honesty to ourselves and our commitment to change how we use food, how we think about food and taking this one day at a time.I am committed or maybe I need to be committed some days I am not sure but I will say, I am so glad I had the surgery, I am thankful for this support forum and last but not least I LovetheNewMe! Have a great week and believe in yourself because "YOU" are worth it! Edit note: (p.s. I learned by logging my food that I may not be eating enough consistently and maybe my body is going into starvation mode. I will keep you posted if I lose anything over the next week. I started tracking every morsel on Saturday the 9th of July. So crossing my fingers ) Try out the web site it is pretty neat and I got the idea from reading one of our blogs. :iloveuall:

Not an expert, but here goes. During the first few weeks after surgery many people do not lose weight if you read on the lapband web site and on other medical web sites it will tell you that during the first few weeks, you are on liquids, mushys and some higher calorie foods that later on you will want to stay away from. What your feeling is normal, many of us went through a grieving process once reality set in and we questioned our decision to have surgery. Remember right now you have no fluid in your band and you really have no restriction from the band. You may feel full but in the first couple of weeks post op you still have some swelling and aroound week 3 or 4 your hungry comes back and that is usually when the do your first fill. The one thing I caution you on is do not compare your self with others, it can be very frustrating if you see them losing and you are not. This is a new adventure and all of our bodies take time to adjust to the new process and we all have to learn how to eat and what works best for us. If you continue to feel discouraged or question your decision for having surgery I suggest you see they physcologist and have them help you through these early weeks. This is all new to all of us and the surgery only fixed one problem for many of us, it gives us restriction. It did not fix the fact that many of us used food as a coping mechanism, for hurt, for anger, for sad, for happy. We all our different and we all have our challanges ahead of us. You need to feel proud that you made this decision toward living a healthier life and taking charge of your weight loss. You have made the first step and you will succeed if you believe in yourself and use these forums for support. None of us are here to judge and we all have our demons. Read the different blogs and learn from others experiences. I learn from others everyday, it gives me encourgement during my weeks that I lose nothing, especially when I know I have done everything correct to my best knowledge. So don't feel discouraged, you are in the beginning stage of your journey, give your body and your mind time to adjust to the journey ahead. Make sure you have a picture of your self at your biggest and keep it in site and take photos of your self along the way. There is no encouragement like seeing your progress in a picture. Take you measurements along the way so you know where you started. Sometimes we lose inches and not lbs. So... say to your self." I made this decision for me, so I would be healthier and live a better life. My band is my tool to support me along my journey. Learn to listen to your band and not the little voice inside your head that says, that's ok just have one Bite!" Good luck on your journey, I know you will be successful!

Great blog! Do I regret it NO, do I have times when I would love to eat what I want YES. What stops me, the 70 lbs I have already lost and looking back at what I used to look like in 2009. I never want to be that person again, if that means I fight the demons inside of my head on a daily basis. So be it. If I stop losing than I need to get off my butt and try harder. I did this for me, my health and just plain damn sick and tired of being FAT! I feel your pain about wanting to eat, because food was my way of coping, it gave me comfort and never talked back. Today, I have to deal with my feelings. And as we all know that is hard and we all struggle with it just some of us are willing to admit it's not the bands fault we fail, it is us and the fat person inside fighting to stay alive. I agree, we will beat this diease and we will be healthy and learn to cope with all the things that make us want to eat. Food is no longer our refuse, food now is just a requirement to maintain a healthy body. We will get there, we will have good days, we will have great days and we will have days when we struggle every minute of the day not to eat. But we won't eat unhealthy and we will make healthy choices for the person we all deserve to be. Keep up the good work, you have made a great start and remember, YOU ARE WORTH IT!

I was reading this again tonight and had to laugh. Of course obesity is a preexisting. Duhhh..do insurance companies think we work up one morning and said, Oh, I think I will be obese today so I can have surgery and restrict what I eat. What idiots! You can jump through there hoops because, we all have because the end result is worth it. Keep your chin up it and the power of positve thinking will carry your through this road block.

Congratulations! Some day I hope to be there.

Well hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the weekend with my three beautiful grandchildren and daughter. It was so great to have the energy to keep up with a 5, 7 and 12 year old. We spent the days in the pool and evenings playing in the yard. We had a cook out on the 4th and than went DT to watch the fireworks and get our faces painted. I don't think I could have asked for a better holiday weekend. Oh and I lost 2 lbs. Even with company here I managed to stay true to my new eating behaviors. I decided to cook what I could eat and daily went out and bought snacks for the kids so they were not sitting around the house. My husband did bring chips into the house for the kids on the 4th and I must say they have always been my weakness and still are and when they left on Tuesday I sent them packing out the door. I really can't trust myself because I knew I would eat them and why have the temptation so close at hand. I also sent all the mini cheese cakes and potato salad. My daughter brought her Pilate's bands and taught me some new strengthening exercise so I could do some more toning at home on my legs and arms. I know I will probably not be able to tighten up all the shrinkles but every little bit helps. I have managed to make it to Curves 4 days a week since starting but still have not got my exercise heart rate up to the 70% they want me to, but I can tell a difference in my energy level. Tonight I got on the WII to weigh myself and was surprised to have lost 2 lbs in the last 9 days. I have been trying hard to stick to 3 meals a day, writing down everything I eat and trying to not do the shakes and bars and eat real food for all my meals. Believe me making myself eat solids for all meals is hard, and requires a lot more planning. I got all of my labs back several weeks ago and my HDL was not high enough and my LDL was too high. So increase the exercise, increase the fiber(and this is very hard). When I got on the scales tonight I am not sure what I would have done if I would have stayed the same. I read and read and everything I read says I have lost above average but when you do everything right you want a reward and my reward has been that number dropping. Sometimes I feel I become fixated with the numbers and so need to refocus myself on the fact that this is a journey and everyday that I make a positive change in my life it is a change in the right direction. I think I have finally realized that the next 30-40lbs is going to be slow and steady. I am not the most patient person, and I really thrive on instant gratification, who of us doesn't? I spend time ever evening reading the blogs because it helps me stay focused, I read the success and the struggles.(I don't like to call them failures because I believe we are all trying to be successful and some do it quicker than others. I try not to compare myself with others because all of our bodies respond differently. Learning from others like us is our key to our success. I had a friend at work who had the band several months ago and she was struggling with getting to her sweet spot and was struggling with not losing. She told me that she had to distance herself from me because it made her feel bad that she was not losing and I was. But she said what helped her most was staying in therapy with the psychologist and getting her head straight. I think sometimes that is something we all struggle with, we had the surgery, we try hard to eat right but we struggle with demons off and on whether we admit it or not. I went to one of the support group sessions a couple of weeks ago and it was sort of a b***h session for a lot. I heard a lot of people blaming the physician and the navigator for them not knowing or understanding something. I sat there and listened and finally thought, how can we hold others to blame for our inability to lose weight. My doctor made it very clear to me, no guarantees, this was a tool and only a tool and the work was up to me. Let's face it I am really good at lying to myself and talking myself into believing that just one bite won't hurt. ( Just like the fish sandwich and biggie Fry's I used to eat on the way home from work as my first dinner, it didn't count because me and the server were the only witness to my act) I work daily on holding myself accountable, it is my responsibility to listen to my body and inform my doctor if something isn't working but first it is my responsibility to follow the rules. (NONE of this is easy, if it was easy I could have done it without the help of lap band, RIGHT!) When I got my lab work back, I was disappointed. I thought, I make healthy food choices what else do they want? The nutritionist said, add more fiber and vegetables. I said how in the H%$# am I suppose to do that when I can only eat so much at a meal and I need to focus on protein. She said, eat legumes, oatmeal, nuts, flaxseed. Oh, I said legumes are protein, duhhhh! And EXERCISE, oh that dreaded word. How many of us thought all we had to do was have the surgery and the band would do all the work. How did that work out for everyone, not that good huh! I think I said this in another blog but I had always thought weight loss surgery was a cop out but boy have I changed my mind. This has been one of the most life changing things that I have ever done. For me my lap band forces me to make healthy choices. I am not just paying a fee to WW to get weighed weekly, I altered my body, I had surgery, I put a limit on my choices of what to eat and eating now requires a lot of thought and planning. So lap band bloggers, yes losing weight is what we all hope to achieve but should that be our only focus? Maybe our focus should be on dealing with changing all the learned bad behaviors we have developed over the years and lap band surgery alone will not change those behaviors or those feelings. I constantly find myself checking in with myself because it is so easy to lose one bad behavior and pick up a new one. It is so hard to hold yourself accountable, so hard not to convince yourself to take just one bite, so hard not to slide back to bad habits with just ONE bite! I don't know how to cope unless I just cut them out of my life. But that seems so final and cold. Should we deprive ourselves of the things we love, until I learn control, for me that will be a yes and maybe will always be a yes. Does an alcoholic ever stop being an alcoholic, NO. Does a drug addict every find a time when they can have just one fix, NO. Will I ever be able to be alone in a room with a bag or bowl of chips. I doubt it! My journey will be full of peaks and valleys. I will have successes and I will have back slides. I will work daily to hold myself accountable for my actions and to be honest with myself. Because honestly I am the only person I ever lied to, everyone else could see what I had done to myself and now you know too.

Agree very frustrating. You would think that insurance companies would realize that if we are healther that we will cost them less in the long run. Obese people have multiple health problems over time and these can be costly to insurance companies. Keep your head up, I know it is a lot of hoops to jump through but it will be worth it in the long run. Maybe the person on the phone got up on the wrong side of the bed, it costs so little to be nice and compassionate. Kindness is such an important part act in health care and I am sorry you had to experience this.

So sorry Rosey. I feel your pain. I have been stuck for about a month now. I had my band tightened back in May at my insistance because I was not losing, they got me too tight. I dropped about 12 lbs after that and now again I am stuck. I eat 3 meals a day, I am satisfied after I eat, I can go 4 hours between meals, I don't snack. I eat about 900 to 1000 calories a day. The only thing I was not doing well or consistant was exercise. I join curves last week and have started going daily to exercise. So we will see. Keep your chin up, we will evetually start losing again. Our bodies will get tired of this weight and start to shed some pounds again. But I really do feel your frustration.

Thought I would update everyone on my progress with exercise. I have gotten up everyday since last Thursday and I am up at 5am and exercising by 7am. Cardio with muscle strengthen 3 days a week and walking 3 days a week. Sunday's off to lounge by the pool and give the muscles a little break. My knees are holding up pretty good, the squats are a little difficult but I am hanging in there. I had no idea how our of shape I really was. Today I finally got my heart rate up to target zone so I was getting the max effect from the exercise. I think I am using muscles I forgot I had. i can really feel the burn tonight, when I raise my arms above my head. I guess the old saying of no pain, no gain is true. I made the mistake of weighing this morning after I showered. Weight still the same, no gain, no loss. I have religiously been writing down every morsel I stick in my pretty little mouth, average of about 900 calories a day and 60 gms of protein. Sticking to the 3 meals a day and in the evenings I have 1 cup popcorn for the fiber or 1 oz nuts for protein. Staying witiin my calorie count and servings. I guess my body is just comfortable with this weight but I'm not. So girls and boys let't get movin, movin, movin. We can all make this happen!

A big high five, you are doing great! You must be so excited with your progress.

So very sorry for your loss. I love the picture. She looks just like my Sassey Kitty. Pets are such wonderful gifts, they love us unconditionally and fill a void in our lives. You have some wonderful memories of your life with Seven and all the wonderful years you shared. Our other pets grieve and need out support to adjust to the loss. Thank you for sharing, I know how hard this is for you and your family. Find peace and comfort in knowing that Seven is no longer hurting and you comforted her to the end. I could never bury my Alex's ashes, I still have them on our mantel with a picture and a little tribute to him. He will be gone a year this July 13th but i still miss him like it was yesterday. Here is a prayer for your Seven that I found when my Alex died. Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.... Author unknown...

Hey this is a great milestone, Amy. March your self over to the other side and buy your self something new. What an accomplishment that we all look so forward too.