Fenton

The binge thing is a hard thing - it's my main reason for being here. For me, it always went hand in hand with the All or None thing - either I was being incredibly disciplined about controlling my eating, or else I'd commit some trivial sin - eat a stick of a Kit Kat bar or something - and the next thing you know, I'd be slamming down whatever I could find, since "I'd already broken my diet anyway". As Jack says, the band is a tool to help us relearn how to eat right. The fact is, I've had my abdomen cut open and my plumbing altered. I can't let myself mess up - that was a BIG deal. So I find myself looking at what I'm eating, and asking myself if it was OK. I've had some higher calorie days, but what has worried me more were the higher volume days - I had two beef short rib enchiladas the other evening. The calorie count was, I think, 460, but they seemd large, and I felt overfull and worried that I'd stretched my pouch. And then the next day I felt hungry, which is why I'm back on liquids too. The thing is, it's hard. It's a hard process, and, for me, a very long one. We have no choice but to keep on going. And temptation isn't going to stop me, even if I yield to it. That was one day, every day is a battle, but the war will take years, and I'm NOT going to lose that.

CHRISTINE! You are the Jason Bourne of the March Bandsters! I'm glad you and the kids (and the new minivan!) are OK! The whole afternoon sounds like a nightmare. I told Fielding they should open up a freestanding institute, so there'd be more people to look after everyone; I imagine it's a question of time before they do something like that, because I think banding is going to continue to explode, particularly when more of the diabetes studies come out.

Lisa! Ten fries and a little bit of patty? Big whoop. Seriously. A couple hundred calories? 300? That's nothing. And those are soft foods, so they didn't stress your band or anything. I think the big risk here - and I'm projecting now - is that you say "Oh, well, that's IT! I blew it! Oh, well, might as well go down and finish off those fries and eat the rest of that burger!" Because it's not like that, not like that AT ALL! You had a little calorie bump, took in more than you were intending. Tomorrow you can walk a little bit more to make up for it. Just don't use this as your excuse to fall apart. It sucks that they bring that crap in there, but you're going to have to stay strong with it. If you really wanted to stir things up, the next time she's down there chowing down on the McD's, go downstairs and say "Doesn't doing that disgust you? I mean, eating that crap, ruining your body and your health? It's just DISGUSTING!" I'd wager she'd be more likely to start eating her meals in the restaurants or in the car...

Well, I clearly need to get me one o' them Supportive Husbands! Thanks, Amanda, that was kind of along the lines of what I was thinking of doing. The liquids-for-a-while thing, not the "hot stone massage" - Jeez, I'm a dude! I'm not getting a "massage" unless I know there'll be a Happy Ending! I jest. Well, not about the liquids. But the liquid thing will be limited, for tomorrow night I'm taking two friends out to dinner, where I have every intention of having a slab of New York Strip with Bordelaise Sauce and Beer-battered Onion Rings and Bone Marrow and Mustard Custard! Which means, since I shall only eat half of my steak, that I shall have steak for the next two days... Oh, wait - that's not until Friday. OK! Liquids for two days, then mushies for two! It's ON!!!

Thanks, guys. LTD, that bodybugg chart is pretty slick - both the chart itself and your results! That's great! And Mike, good to hear that you're losing even without solid restriction. Today, I've been feeling a bit peckish; I think part of it might be that I've had slightly larger volume meals recently, and am wondering whether my stomach has stretched out a bit after all the weeks on liquids or mushy food. I'm going to try slipping back into liquids tomorrow for a day or two, see if that effects my hunger. Either way, things are going well. Since I started my pre-op liquid diet on the 21st of February, I weighed 48 more pounds than I do today. I'm down 10% of my body weight!

Congrats to all the major achievers around here! And WOW, Kerri - you look great! And WOW Ajoneen - your husband sounds like a keeper! I've been feeling a bit of hunger lately. I think I'm going to slide back into liquids for a little while, see if I can shrink the stomach again and ease up on the hunger pains. If not, I guess I'm due for a band adjustment...

Gastric bypass is a problem for all the reasons Jack mentioned. The mortality is significant, particularly in the very obese, and, while weight loss is faster, there is some question as to whether or not it's any better than with lap banding - which has all the advantages Jack mentioned.

Angelic: on this whole journey-type situation, we achieve several different types of success. Most of us focus on the weight we lose - the number of pounds we see that we've lost when we climb onto the scale. This would be a Scale Victory. But it's important to keep your eyes and ears open for things which don't relate to the number on that scale - someone saying, "Hey, have you lost weight?", or being able to tighten that belt one more notch, or noticing that you've slipped into that cinema seat a lot more comfortably than before, or that the (Gawd help me) bra that was too small now fits perfectly, or that you have so much energy that a walk that usually takes you over a half an hour now just takes 25 minutes. These are Non-Scale Victories - NSVs. Now, I don't know if I made it up, but it seems to me that, if you can have an NSV, you can also have an SV. So, there it is...

Harley, have you been celebrating your scale Victory (SV) with a beanfest? Filled up on Coke and refritos? It seems odd that you should be so badly afflicted so far out from surgery. My Number 1 suspicion is that you have done something wrong, and God has decided to smite you with gas. But I could be mistaken.

Christine, thanks. But I have all the toys I need!

OK, Teri - you're on! Let's see if we can both do it... Debbie, your grandmother's death must have been a huge trigger for bad eating habits - you've done a great job resisting. Generally, I don't think they do fills for a good four to six weeks, to give the surgical site time to settle down, and let all the swelling stop. Just hang in there with your liquid intake - that needle'll budge soon.

I have a new goal - I can't tell yet how ambitious it is, if it's do-able or not, but I want to lose 25 pounds by the beginning of June.

You did the right thing, Lisa - but you know that! And Harley? There's none so blind as they who will not see! It wasn't "chocolate-covered earthworms", it was "ground pig's liver and hearts with chocolate wafers".

One cool thing: my 48lb weight loss is 10% of my original body mass! I should by myself something cool!

I think we're all agreed that Lisa's sister is an earthbound incarnation of Evil for wanting to barbecue while she's on liquids, but refusing to allow them to go ahead with their plan - particularly if they're paying rent - might be a bit difficult. Maybe it's because I'm British and avoid confrontation wherever possible, but I'd probably let them barbecue, and go to the movies and then sit by a river and drink my Protein shake and cry, then go home really late and throw all their leftovers in the garbage. But that's just me!!! Welcome aboard SweetPea 2 - and thanks for sharing your diet. One of the things we've noticed here is how different everybody's doctor-recommended food plan is! And CONGRATS to you SV types (I'm assuming that if there's an NSV, there's also an SV)! I myself had one today too - weighed myself without my heavy Endless Winter clothes, and found that my total loss is now 48 lbs! (That's since starting this process; 21 since surgery.) And Ajoneen, have fun at your Hindoo ceremony! Don't ask "WHERE'S THE BEEF??", because that would be the Wrong Question to ask at a Hindoo Ceremony of Love...

Oh, and I'd include Dr. Ren under that, too. Another important factor is that they're active in doing research, which means they're familiar with the current medical literature in their field. So, all in all, going through NYU might not be the most PLEASANT experience, but medically I think they're pretty much untouchable. PS I had Empire BC/BS, too. They paid for everything except $250.

Dr. Fielding's a good guy. I have a medical background, and chose Dr. Fielding for a couple of reasons: first off, he has a band himself, which I think is invaluable. Secondly, and most important to me, was that I believe he's probably the most experienced surgeon in the country when it comes to lap banding. My experience of the surgery, the hospital stay at NYU had a few bumps, I have to say: it is, at some level, a factory. But I'm happy to put up with occasionally less than charming phone personnel and crowded waiting rooms and delays for appointments if that's the price of being operated on someone with vast experience. I can put up with discomfort and inconvenience, but when they're cutting you up, you want the best.

You're losing a pound a day! That's EXTREMELY fast! You'll soon slow down to losing a couple of pounds a week or so...

Your sister is wholly out of line. It's really unfair - and possibly reflects an unconscious desire to sabotage you - that, in your own house, she is insisting on tantalizing you. You have two choices: 1. Confront her and ask that she not have a barbecue for at least a month, at which point you might be able to have some grilled food. 2. Pack up your Protein shakes and yogurt smoothy and leave home for the day. Neither of these is ideal, but she's already created the situation, and it's up to you to decide which of those options would be less psychically painful. You could also ask her why, exactly, when she's living in YOUR home, when you're on a critical ALL-LIQUID DIET which is VITAL FOR SAVING YOUR HEALTH she would choose to come in and deliberately set up a barbecue meal, knowing how much you love that. That's just f'd up. Really, if that's the sort of thoughtlessness you can expect from her, perhaps you should consider urging them to find some other place to live, somewhere where they'll be able to barbecue to their hearts' content.

No, mylah, it just means you're able to burp and drink pop! At the moment, you don't have much in the way of restriction - your band is probably empty, so it's not squeezing your stomach, so you can burp and drink pop at will. However, everyone says you should try to avoid pop because it'll stretch your stomach, and then you'll be able to eat more food without feeling full. When you get your first fill, Water will be injected into the band to tighten it. You'll still be able to burp, but it'll be harder to eat a large amount of food. How is your weight going?

Actually, the day after posting that - two days after weighing myself and being consternated that the scale hadn't budged - I weighed myself again and was down three pounds. I think the lesson is not to always be hopping on and off the scales, and not to freak out when you don't hit the numbers you expect. I've had a bunch of NSVs - my shirt size has gone down, I had to throw away a sweatervest that was recently snug because I was swimming in it, and I'm down three belt notches. But the scale is nice, because numbers feel precise and absolute.

JDub! Snap out of it! I'm not sure if I'm following you, but if your calorie excess is 300 - 500 calories a day, you'll be putting on a pound a week at the most. The bump in your weight has to do with salt and Water and probably some kind of female hormone thing that I can't even bring myself to consider. But ARE you really taking in 900 or fewer cals a day? I agree that those mashed potatoes could be a problem - besides, aren't you sick of them yet? Why not try picking up some Lean Cuisine or similar dinners and pureeing them? Why not try some Protein shakes with a little yogurt and banana? There are some items for recipes in the mushy stage elsewhere on the board. But really: watch your intake like a hawk, keep your water intake up, and keep on walking. The exercise will really help you through this part, and make you feel good. Are you keeping a food journal?

Christine! You're hardly the only person here who's eaten in secret! I used to drop my girlfriend home early after a nice dinner out so that I could stop by the store and buy Twixes and ice cream to scarf down. And one of the cleanest signs of real alcoholism is the habit of drinking by yourself in secret, and hiding bottles. So don't hold back: NO SHAME! You're among equals. We're all of us in the same boat - you, me, any number of the women in here. And we're all going down together! Well, uh, that's not EXACTLY what I meant to say, but you know what I mean: NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND! Keep posting, and we'll keep checking in on you. It might be an idea for you to start a food journal, if you're not doing it already. Really track your intake, so it doesn't start to sneak away from you. And be brutally honest. Perhaps watching yourself write down "1 pint of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia, 1400 calories, 30 g Protein, 8,000 g fat" will help underline what we do to ourselves when we "cheat".

I'm going to get mine on my lower arms, mostly because the skin of the lower arm will change less than the skin of the upper arm with marked weight loss. Also, whimsy - when you take your Thai Holiday Reward for reaching goal, you might discover that tattoos are still seen as declassé by some Thais. Although I do love Angelina's Thai - or, actually, Cambodian, I think - tattoos on her back.

I was wondering about just that problem. I'mhaving a lazy day today, and was thinking I might sit down in front of the TV. But traditionally, I've snacked in front of the TV, to the extent that it would feel odd not to have a little something while there. Like the experience wouldn't be complete without a bowl of Cereal or a chocolate bar or something. But I'm not hungry, and I don't want to eat. Is there anything people recommend when they feel the urge to eat idly? I guess it'd be out of boredom, kind of, or just out of habit.