Thomas Moore

You know I did the same thing you did. Day in and day out all I did was prep for the surgery the side effects, I stressed myself out beyond words. The band in itself is an excellent tool for weightloss. But like everything else in life it is falable. When I say that you read a lot of horror stores about medical treatments every single day. In this case the lap band. Honestly I think a lot of it is the person, or operator error. You really have to change your brain befor you get the band. If you dont you will be absolutely miserable afterwords. Even today nine months post op I have to be super careful, I measure my food, I eat right. Like green foods, whole foods. Start cutting the crap out of your diet right now. Doing this is going to be very helpful in your sucess of surviving life post band. I get stuck pretty much every time I eat. I don't have a huge fill either. I have only had one fill in the whole time ive had it. Somethings I would reckomend for you which I still do today is juicing. Juice fasting is a great way to prep your body for the surgery. You will get every thing that you need nutrition wise while adhering to the pre op diet. I do 1 and 2 week juice fasts to reset my bad every so often. Do the mental work now befor surgery because its going to make all the difference.

Lets start at the begining. One the band is tool but without the right food plan and exercize program the band will not work for anyone. I was banded March 24th, 2011. I did not have a fill untill May 6th, 2011. I did manage in that time to lose 35 pounds. Not because of having restriction because I lived like I did. I measure everything that goes in my body, 4 ounces thats it period plain and simple. No extra fats, no hamberger patties, no fried foods. Scrabbled eggs are good, or one packet of oatmeal or wheat hearts are good breakfasts. lunch meats from the deli I get them to slice it thick, one large slice, a slice of cheese and an ounce of dill pickel is a lunch. dinner baked chicken breast four ounces, and if ive been good I will have a cup of organic salid mix and vinager dressing with a tea spoon of minced garlic. Thats it, keep it simple only eat the amount that is safe to protect your band until you get the fill that will give you restriction. If you eat too much now, when you get a good fill your going to eat too much then and either make yourself sick, or damage your band and none of us want that. A friend of mine got banded by the same doctor on the same day. She has not lost any weight, she had her fill before I did however she got hers without the fluroscopy. She has no restriction. I had mine done with the fluroscopy got 6.88 cc in my band, I have great restriction. The band is a tool but if your not living the program, eatting the exact amounts you should be you really are cheating yourself. Hamberger patties are loaded with fat. You have to watch everything now. I hope your able to get things going the right way.

When I started all this I tried to ask all the right questions. That said not all of the answers given were completly true. Frustration Number One - Eight eight hundred callories a day. Not a problem most days it's hard to get that much down. However if I eat anything less than 1000 callories I don't loose weight. However I have noticed if I eat 1000 for 2 days and then drop down to 8 for 2 days I loose weight. My body is on a weird loop and it's driving me crasy. Frustration Number Two - Eight 80 Grams of Protien a Day. 2 months ago not a problem today, huge problem. I can not stand most shakes the idea of them makes me want to wretch. EAS shakes are bareable once daily, but thats all I can stand not mention holy cow they are expensive. So heres what I am doing; Breakfasts at this time are first thing EQIS Strawberry Shake. One of my favorites. They are nice they come in a box, I keep them in the fridge they are best cold. like really cold. They are 17 grams of protien and only 2 grams of carbs and are 110 callories. Best part they count as twenty percent of your daily calcium requirement for one of them and they keep me running for a couple of hours. I then two hours latter have two boiled eggs, soft boiled, they go nice and easy. This is another 140 callories, and 8 grams of protien. Putting me in at 25 grams in the morning. Adding the eggs was essential for me. I am carnavore by nature so I have started encorperating soft turkey meat, lunch meat style and pickles. Four small slices of turkey meat or equal to 3 ounces and one pickle cut into fourths and thats my lunch. Thats 135 callories....pickles have none. With a whooping 24 grams of protien. Often ill have about half ounce of cottage cheese, sneeking in some much needed calcium and another ten grams protien putting me at the end of my lunch cycle at 59 grams of protien. Dinner, i've noticed chicken breast works great for me in the evenings. 4 ounce of chicken breast, not I throw tabasco, or red hot on mine. One helps me slow down my eatting process and two I like hot food. Gives me my final 359 callories for the day. Putting me in at 859 for the day. Often ill use my last bit of callories in drinks like a flavored tea. A small serving of v8 or something. Another frustration for me is I was told I could get my first fill although im doing amazing at this time was two weeks and could be filled at any fill location. Wrong! I got banded in Mexico which means there is one and only one company that will fill my 10cc band one! Which is fill centers USA, which the closest one to me is Albequerqe, NM four almost five hours from me. We I havent been there and so getting to finally go will be a bonus. However, thats a lot farther than the one that is here. The cost for my first fill is 359 dollars and each additional fill is 165 which does not enclude travel costs. As this location is so far away I do not want to get a fill and head home, all to have a problem that night. So we will have to grab a hotel, and spent the night meaning doggie and kid sitters again! Worst part no fill in two weeks! No fill in 4 weeks, they will only do a fill after your post op for 6 weeks! Okay, this is not what I was expecting. I am doing well, and continueing to lose weight, however if it were not going better than expected then I would PISSED! My first fill date is actually set for May 4 which is 37 days away which will actually put me and 7 weeks post op. I will survive and lets hope I continue to lose weight in the mean time. Going to work on a different menu for this week but so far so good. All and all not bad. Not going to update my weight here for a few weeks. Working on a bit of shock value...you will be amazed!

Thank you for sharing this you are true inspiration to us all.

Wow... seems kinda crappy to me. Consider finding a new doctor to handle your fills and what not. If you can't trust him and his advice what is he really worth?

Faith... I call it taking a leap of faith getting banded. I went to Mexico to have mine done as i could have never afforded to get banded any other way. My family and friends fretted about the risks. But as I saw it I had to have some faith that this was what was ment to be. I like yourself was a big child, no a fat child I weighed 210 pounds by the time I was twelve. When I finally said enough was enough? November 2010, my friend was planning to go herself and get it done. I of course thought that she was nuts! But after thinking about it, I made the choice. Of course I tourtured myself first making sure that I could infact stay on liqiuds for weeks. And I did for almost five weeks I managed in that time to drop 31 pounds...I had surgery March 14th, 2011 and in one week I lost 17 lbs. Yeah it was all about my eatting, it hasn't been easy but if I can do it so can you. Always here if you need a friend, and some support. Tom

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Well welcome back.

Sean, thanks for the responce, and the WTG I think we all need that.

Jin, I made myself and everyone nuts for weeks prior to the surgry only eating liquid and making myself nuts worrying about if my mind was well enough to deal with the changes that woulod come with the band. I remind myself daily about how the band is the tool, and like any tool it is only as good as the person using it. I think you have have to have your head in the game. right now this time, is your healing yorself after years of miss use. It's all about you, and you focusing on you. 26 pounds in no little amount of weight to loose...so pat yourself on the back and keep on trucking for the your goals.

Hey Bren, Thats a good amount of weight there. WTG.... and I'll be cheering you on. I've been obsessed with the diet myself, I even weight everything I drink im nuts about it and completely get where you are coming from.

Judy, thanks for the responce, sound like shepards pie to me. One of my favorites, however I all abstating from potatoes and all starchy items for lent...lol.

Yeah it's really clicked together fast for me and I can not even begin to tell you the difference it has made on me.

<P>I like the magic bullet, yet I have not had very good luck with the cups serviving. I like to use glass to, its a thing for me.</P>

<P>Thanks, I will check that out.</P>

I actually bought the one cup serving size glass bowls from wal-mart. 4 for eight bucks, I can't melt them, or stain them. I bought a larger blender and just cap off and put in fridge for later. It's easier and les clean up. Plus I bought a pretty glass just my size, makes the shakes nicer.<BR>

Things I should have bopught for myself prior to surgery; scale, blender, dishes, food scale, hobby ... Let me explaine the reasons why. First the scale the thousand resons why here. I have been using my wii fit which would drastically change through out the day and have me at the brink of tears. And yes I should only be weighing in the morning but lets be honest most people pre op that I have taked to weight often through the day to see the changes in their body weight I like to see the changes in myself good or bad. Second is the blendar, omg protein shakes are gross if you dont have a blender. And right now Thomas can not live on chicken broth alone. Getting your protein is vital post op, so for those of you don't go into surgery without a kick ass blender! Third dishes, nothing sucks more than popping four ounces of liquid into a giant glass. I don't care how full your stomach is thats not going to make your mind happy. And lets face it we fixed the stomach here but not the mind. Something I am discovering since I lost the interest in food. Is some how retraining the brain mine has been going on and on only at meals like, "Really, this is it?" Although I am not hungrey my brain at meals works on overdrive to some how sabatoge me. Of course then something kicks in that says I really don't need this and then I can barely eat anything. Fourth food scale, everyone measures things differently, and you want to track your callories without losing your mind the food scale is the way to go here. Nothing is easier than poping your plate or bowl on a food scale, zeroing it out, slidding it ounces and adding 4 oz which is your meal is. I never expected I'd be so bored... find something you can do on your ass period. So as of totay my total weight loss 17 lbs in 7 days, and feeling great.

So here I am six days post op and I am down 15 pounds. No complaining there, I now weigh 297 pounds and yes I feel great about it. Sure it helps that Scotts mom game over this morning and was like, "Oh wow Tom your really looking great!" Thanks mom, just what I needed to hear this morning. I can't believe that in the last year I have lost 46 pounds. But most surprisingly I made my one month pre op goal in six days! This morning I noticed an even bigger change, the loss of communication with my gut. And more so with my body when it comes to signals like, "Hey Thomas...need some fuel down here!" Fact is I got up at six am, on my own by the way just popped up like wow it's really going to be a beautiful day today. I started and went about my day, even cooked waffels for the kids. Never once did I feel any temptation to eat it, no desire at all and let me tell you I LOVE WAFFELS! By 11am it dawned on me, when I was yelling at my boys that they needed to drink some water that I in fact had not. Not even one sip.... what the heck? I like the way my friend Barbie put it, "Imagine for a moment living life where your hunger no longer controls every waking moment of your day?' Suddenly I see all the stuff I have been missing out on while stuffing my face. All the time I waisted for what? Now I am making my kids and husband nuts; i've gotten back into cycling again, doing it twice a day. I'm taking my kids to the park, going for walks with them, playing wii fit, board games, shooting hoops, and holy shit I thought I was cleaning fool before well look at me now. Life is good really, although I am worried about the loss of communication with my body. This is what I signed up for and as of today 15lbs less in 6 days I only see my life getting better. Oh and don't worry I have had 16 ounces of water now and will catch up with where I like to have myself at by this hour in maybe 30 minutes.

I can't imagine how frustrating this must be for you. I was only recently banded less thn a week agao and am shocked on the amount of restriction I already have. I can on imagine the amount of restruction I will have after my first fill. Check fighting the good fight and let me know if you just need someone to listen.

Wow, wonderfully and beautifully written.

Can't believe it's only been five days and I am twelve pounds lighter! The next pound I loose I will ve under 300 pounds, and I havent been under 300 lbs in at least ten years. I am thinking that I need to reavaluate my weight loss goals for the first month. I had originally planned to lose fifteen for the month. As I have already lost 12 pounds in 5 days. At this rate I will reach my weightloss goal of the month in a week. Now I am not complaining one little but, it's just I am shocked on how much weight has come off so fast! I would like to hear more about peoples first months of weight loss to get a better idea of realistic weight loss goals. Right now I am just cycling twice a day, and walking but am considering th 25k in 9 weeks program....any thoughts.

Congrats!!!!!!!!!

I feel you on doubts, thats a lot of weight in a very short period of time great job.

Very useful information here, thank you.

I use livestrong.com it has callorie tracking and what you burn...awsome tool beven breaks down your sugars and everything.