ROTJob

I was banded in September of last year and have had 5 fills so far. I had a bit of weight loss before and after surgery, but nothing near what I expected. I did find that I was eating less, but nothing like what was advertised as a 1/2 cup portion. My experience was that for a day after a fill, I would be very restricted, then for a week or so later it would loosen up a bit, but by week 2 I felt back to normal and could eat virtually anything I wanted. After fill #5, I decided to give them a rest for a while. My port is at a difficult angle and usually requires up to 20 minutes of needle digging for my doc to hit it. It is not a pleasant experience to say the least. Anyway, fast forward to April. I decided the band wasn't going to end up being the solution for me, so I started working out with a trainer at the gym. The types of exercise are all freeweight circuits with very little if any rest periods between sets. The weights when used are not extreme amounts or anything like that. We do a lot of core training though, like planks, and many exercises on the stability ball. I did not notice a change in my eating for the first 4 weeks or so, but in the last 2 weeks, I have noticed a serious change. I can suddenly feel my band. Full force. I can barely eat 1/2 cup of food and if it is something of steaklike consistency, forget it. Bread and tortillas are suddenly completely off the menu. Now I am NOT complaining here at all. I am happy that the band appears to finally be working. But why now? Is that normal or could there be something wrong? I know that food is going through so I am not all that concerned about it, but the suddenness of the change was startling. Suddenly I am back to watching my Protein level more than ever and am struggling to get enough protein in. Thanks for any advice.

I had it for a week until I moved off of the liquid diet.

1.5 lbs lean ground beef 10.5 oz can campbell's french onion soup 15 oz can pinto beans 8oz can tomato sauce 1 cup coca cola 2 TBSP chili powder 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp cocoa powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 1 tsp curry powder Brown the ground beef in a sauce pan. Puree the soup in a blender until smooth. Add soup and all other ingredients to browned ground beef and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally until thick. The topping: 1/2 cup ketchup 4 TBSP Worchestershire sauce Mix together and spoon on top of chili. Top with parmesan cheese.

I was banded on 9-1 and I think I must have had one of the smoothest transitions ever based on what I have read here recently. I had mild discomfort for 3-5 days and after that it was smooth sailing. I saw my surgeon 1 week post op and he said I was ok to move on to real food. At that point I had lost 40 lbs. I had a business trip last week, so access to healthy food was limited, plus I endulged a bit, but not a lot. When I got home I found that I had gained 10 lbs. I didn't beat myself up over it, remembering you all saying that the first 6 weeks are for healing, not losing weight. Over the next 3 days I gained a steady pound per day. Then 2 days again I had a 3lb drop and another this morning. It is very satisfying to see the scale headed back in the right direction. As for food, I really haven't had any issues with sliming or PB. Most of the time I don't notice any restriction at all. I did eat half of a wrap from Starbuck though and the flat bread was difficult to get down. I slowed down a lot after that event. My favorite meal of all is chili so far. I also find that a lot of filler foods, like bread and rice, no longer hold much appeal for me. They are flavorless and just take up space. I much prefer food with real flavor now. All in all things are going well. I am ready to get my first fill on Oct 5.

I saw my surgeon today and he said it is ok for me to start moving to mushies. He said I do not need to do the baby food, just soft or pureed food for 3-4 days and then I can start introducing solids. This is like 4 weeks ahead of the schedule the nutritionist gave me. I was so excited I almost cried.

I guess I fall into the smart cheating category too. I made it up til today and finally I had to have SOMETHING with some flavor. I found a tub of french onion dip in the fridge and dipped my finger in twice and licked it off. I swear I nearly passed out from the sensation of flavor.

They usually have some chicken dishes that are mild. Ask your waiter.

First off, I was on the pre-op diet 8 days longer than normal because I had to push my surgery out a week. Now I am 1 week post op, so 3 total weeks on the liquid diet, and I have lost 40lbs. I had lost 20 as of last week on my surgery date and I lost 20 in the last week. Now I think this is great and I am certainly feeling great other than starving and being obsessed with not being able to eat anything. I see my surgeon tomorrow so I will ask about this.

I have been drinking EAS whey protein drinks, both powdered and premixed. I also tried CIB for a while, but it has much less protein and more volume. I need 122g of protein per day and anything I can find that tastes halfway decent has less than 20g, so that means 6 shakes a day.

See this is what I have a problem with. You get soup, I don't. That makes no sense at all to me, but whatever. I am sticking with the liquids for 9 more days.

Thank you all for the comments. I went to the store right after posting this and bought more liquids, juices, etc, and a little yogurt. I was determined that I would try the yogurt tonight, but after reading your replies I decided to wait. This is definitely the hardest part so far. MUCH harder than the 4 days of pre-op liquid diet. It's weird too, because I am allowed to drink more protein shakes now ( I need 122g) but they are starting to sicken me. My mouth tastes chalky all the time and I am constantly thirsty and my stomach grumbles non stop. It feels like all I do is drink shakes all day and I am considering a higher protein content drink so that I don't have to drink as many of them.

I got my band on sept 1 and my doc has me on liquids for 2 weeks, then mushies for 1 week, then semi-solids for a week and then solids. It seems like a lot of people don't have to go this slowly, and I'm wondering if my doc is just being super-cautious or what? Even the band literature doesn't have you wait this long for the mush phase. I did fine up until today, but today I got hungry. I am guessing this means my swelling has gone down. Is it safe to start adding in mush yet or should I really wait 2 full weeks?

I was banded on Thursday and came home yesterday afternoon. Things went very well. Pain was much less than I expected until I stood up, then it got painful. The meds help a lot with that. I am having a lot of intestinal gurgling that my doc said is normal. It isn't painful as much as it is uncomfortable. Laying on my side is difficult, so sleep is also difficult at the moment. So far I have kept all clear liquids down no problem. Ready to try my first post-band protein drink today.

I have to check in at 6am and my surgery is at 7:30. Good luck to you too.