evansmom78

Hi There, Tomorrow is my 3 year anniversary since getting the Realize band. I have gone back to my surgeon for a total of 9 fills in this 3 years. Just about every 2-3 months I go back for some tweaking. I have kept off 80 lbs out of my 90 lbs total loss. I still have not gotten to my goal weight, and I had some insight this weekend into some possible reasons why. I attended my hospital's WLS support group meeting and it was really good for me to hear other peoples' experiences. So the first year post-op, weight loss was my main focus. The second year was 50/50 weight loss and balancing work and life. This third year my focus has completely shifted to balancing my life through major changes. While I can say that I have formed one, solid new behavior- exercise- everything else is still a lot of effort. For now, I am going back to the basics. Protein bar for breakfast. Lean Protein and veggies for lunch. Measuring my dinner portion. Only liquids in between meals. Logging in everything I put in my mouth. This is what life post-op looked like that first year when the weight was falling off. I want to re-capture that focus and this is how I'm beginning to do it =) I am also trying to get away from slider foods and experiment with ways to cook lean protein- like chicken breast which I swore off in year 2 because it was too hard to get down. I got some new recipes from Obesity Help magazine and it inspired me to try new ways to cook chicken. I found that if I stir fry chicken (with only 1 tbsp oil), it's much moister than baked and I can get 3 ounces down! This has inspired me to try other lean Proteins that I had sworn off for fear of the pain associated when something gets stuck. Good luck to you on your journey. It sounds like a fill might help you along with some more solid type food. I found that I was back to feeling hungry in between meals until I recently increased my protein. I find that if I have >30 grams protein per meal, it stays with me a lot longer. This could mean just adding a string cheese or a boiled egg to my lunch to push the protein count over 30 without a significant increase in calories. I personally do believe in finding that "sweet spot" because I think I'm there. I had been too tight (and knew it because I had constant heartburn) and then a little "unfill" did the trick to get rid of the heartburn and leave me with good restriction. Now that I'm at my sweetspot- It's all up to me how I work it =)

Hi there, I am almost three years post surgery and I have very tight restriction. I love eggs but cannot eat scrambled eggs prepared normally (especially in a restaurant!). What I can eat is boiled eggs, devilled eggs, over-easy eggs. If I am really craving scrambled eggs, I have them only at home and drench them in salsa before even trying. Otherwise they just end up making me miserable from throwing up. Good luck and don't give up on eggs- they are a wonderful source of protein!