nurse535

I am intrigued by this idea of carb cycling - I'm going to read more about it and maybe give it a shot to see if it will work for me, too!

pureed cauliflower would make me vomit even without the band. I'm just sayin.

pureed cauliflower would make me vomit even without the band. I'm just sayin.

Last year was my first Thanksgiving after being banded, and I ate a little bit of everything I wanted, including Desserts. I even had a bite of a yummy roll! I took small bites, chewed well, and ate slowly. I enjoyed my meal and felt really great about having enjoyed it without overindulging.

pureed cauliflower would make me vomit even without the band. I'm just sayin.

I just wrote you a long reply that got eaten by the computer when I tried to backspace to fix a typo. The short version is, I am very sorry you are feeling the way you are right now. You are not alone in your feelings. My ex left me for a woman he'd known a week when I was 7 months pregnant with our 4th child; it was devastating. It's so hard to see someone we love going on in their lives without us. It sounds like your ex is an abusive, manipulative jerk, and I assure you his true self will be revealed to whatever women he's charming at the moment. Sadly, some of them will probably be so weak they will allow his mistreatment. I am SO proud of you for getting yourself out of that situation.
My suggestion is to make a list of about 10 things that you can do rather than eat when the urge to emotional eat strikes you. Then commit to doing one of those activities for a minimum of 20 minutes before you allow yourself to eat anything. By that time, you'll either be distracted and not want to eat any more, or you'll know you're really hungry and you can make better choices about what you eat. I've been doing this myself since my pre-op diet started, because I was so hungry and hating going without food. It's helped me differentiate between real hunger and head hunger.
Once you have some fill in your band, you will have the negative consequences of overeating to help keep you from doing it, too. But it's still important to learn coping skills to deal with the hurts/stresses in our lives.

I don't see any reason to tell her. I'd recommend saying it's a hernia repair rather than gallbladder removal, however, because if you do end up having to have your gallbladder out she'll know something's up LOL. There's probably not any way around telling her you are having surgery, but if you don't feel comfortable telling her why, then don't. If she questions your smaller meals or Protein Shakes, just say the surgery has made you want to work on improving your health, which is totally true

I may be misinterpreting your message, but it sounds like you were expecting the band to be some type of stop sign so you'd know when to stop eating. There are definitely some people out there for whom it works that way, but I've seen others say they can eat as much as they want. I'm only a few days post-op so I have no idea what category I will fall in...my hope is that I will be able to eat what I want but only a small portion of it will satisfy me so I won't overeat.

I think you should talk to your surgeon and make sure he understands you're not feeling full. I don't believe you're supposed to feel stuffed after eating, but you at least shouldn't feel hungry again for several hours. And when you eat, it's on you to choose healthy foods in appropriate portions because you already know that in your case the band will not stop you. My advice would be to plan out some meals and Snacks in advance and follow that eating plan carefully and see what happens. Also, track everything you eat so you have an accurate picture of what your caloric intake is.