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Today, I'm buckling down, because I've completely stopped losing. In fact, over the past month, I've gained 0.6 lbs. Now, part of me is celebrating and praising my band that I've ONLY gained about half a pound when I have been doing nothing right and totally slacking off this process of being banded, but the other half of me is kicking itself repeatedly in the head and screaming that I'm a #&*%#$%! idiot for paying thousands of dollars for surgery if I'm not going to follow the program that goes along with it. Remember Logical Me and Emotional Me? Yeah, they're at it again. It's been a rough few weeks, and instead of buckling down and meeting the challenge, I let myself fall back into old habits. My excuses ranged from a deadline for work, through a long-planned (since well before banding) out of town girl's weekend that included much wine and some fabulous food, through the stress of helping my BFF with her wedding (happening in 11 days) prep. The truth is that life is always going to throw stuff like this into my path, and while I may not have dealt with it well this time, that's no reason to give up or to expect to deal with it poorly next time. Every minute is a chance to start over, or to at least get back on track, so that's what I'm going to do. Of course, I could have been a lot worse, and remembering that is helping me pick myself back up. I'm definitely still eating less than I would have pre-band, but I've allowed myself to slack off on paying attention to my physical hunger as opposed to my head hunger, so that's today's number one priority. Along with getting back to drinking my water. All the fundamentals, as it were. I've already made it through breakfast and lunch successfully, counting my chews, spacing out my bites, and taking at least 20 minutes to eat. I also have a plan in place for dinner, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I think the important thing to remember is that I am in control of this process. When I follow the rules, I will lose weight; when I don't, I won't. It's really that simple. The power is in my hands. Time to use it for good instead of evil.

It's totally an individual thing as to what you can eat. I have no trouble with anything, so I'm not restricted as to what I can order, I just can't eat the same size portions. I like to share things with people I'm out with if they're willing, that way I get to taste a bigger variety of foods without overeating. I also order off of appetizer menus for my main meal at times. And I can't think of a single time I've gone to a restaurant since being banded when I haven't brought home at least 1-2 more meals worth of food. Restaurant portions are RIDICULOUS!!!

Feeling so tired today, and I'm not sure why, so I might just decide to blame the weather. Yesterday was beautiful, but today it's back to Spring in the PacNW. Translation = Cool and Rainy. So I was out of touch for a couple of weeks there. Nothing horrible happened, but I had a work deadline that butted right up against a trip out of town, so I was a bit preoccupied and not spending much time on the forums or even online in general. I did learn something, though, that has made me both happy and totally surprised: So far, having the band has meant that even when I get incredibly stressed and stop paying super-close attention to what and how I'm eating, I still don't go back to my old habits. At least not totally. Before the band, a work deadline combined with a couple of weeks of stress would have meant an automatic 5 lb gain or more. This time, not so much. I pretty much stayed the same overall. It's still sinking in, really, because it's such a foreign concept to me. I mean, intellectually I knew from the beginning that getting the band would mean a permanent lifestyle change, but it's still weird to me to see concrete evidence of that. Or maybe that's just me. On Tuesday, I got my third fill, bringing me up to 6.5cc in my 11cc band. I'm still not feeling restriction, but I'm hoping I'm just one of those people who needs a little time for the fill to settle in. I keep expecting to hit restriction and have to start eliminating items from my diet, but so far I can eat anything and everything, including bread, pasta, rice, beef, and raw veggies. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I mean, I don't want to have to give up foods, but it makes me feel like something less than a "real" bandster for some reason. I mean, part of why I got the band was so that I could change not what I ate but how much I ate, but it's weird to hear all the stories about how people with bands absolutely canNOT eat certain foods and know that I have no issues with them. I keep waiting for it to change, but will it? And if it doesn't, am I still a bandster? *sigh* Like I said, I'm tired and philosophical today. Maybe I should just go have a nap now... ***Apologies for the rambling. I really do need more sleep.

I sleep half on my stomach and half on my side. Since about 2 weeks after surgery, I've been fine with any position. I did feel a little bit uncomfortable on my stomach last night after my latest fill, but I wasn't surprised and I doubt it will last.

Oooh, Thai is one of my favorite ethnic cuisines.There are many Thai options to choose from, but one of the safest will be something called Pad Kra Prow (spelling will vary, but it should be similar). In most Thai restaurants, it contains your choice of meat (chicken is a good lean choice, and some restaurants will mince or grind it if that makes it easier for you) stir fried with onions, sweet pepper, and Thai basil. It's really yummy! You can usually specify how spicy you want it (it's got plenty of flavor even if you ask for no heat). It will be served with rice, but if that gives you problems, just skip it and enjoy the meat and veggies. A lot of Thai dishes include rice or noodles, so if rice or Pasta gives you problems, avoid those. There are also appetizers that can work well like satay, which is barbecued skewered meats (no sweet bbq sauce, just herbs and spices). Good luck and enjoy!

Yup, the meat needs to be "lubricated." To keep fat down, I mixed my tuna or shredded chicken with a little lite mayo, then if it needed to be moister, I would avoid adding more fatty mayo by substituting plain Greek yogurt for the rest of the mayo. And don't forget to add flavor! I usually use salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a little sweet pickle relish in my salads. I like celery, too, but at the beginning of the soft foods phase, it can be a little too fibrous to work well with the band.

I didn't gain any weight, but my losses did stop for about 2 weeks when I transitioned to solid foods. It's totally and completely normal. I know that no one wants to hear this, no matter how many times earlier bandsters say it, but the time between your surgery and your first fill is NOT about weight loss; it's about healing from the surgery and learning how to eat as a banded person. Either maintaining or gaining a small amount of weight is perfectly normal and even expected in the first month or two before getting a fill. It's important not to look at it as a personal failure or a failure of the band, but as a normal part of the banding process. Any gain WILL come off once you begin to get restriction, so long as you follow the rules of banded eating. Best of luck!

Congratulations on your banding! This site has a lot of supportive people who can answer just about any question you can think to ask. It sounds like you're doing great so far, and I'm sure that will continue with your great attitude! Best of luck!

I tired to stick at around half a cup. Tuna, chicken, and egg salads are good soft foods, as are eggs in general, especially poached or scrambled. I ate a lot of tuna and chicken salad when I first started soft foods. They give you lots of protein but are still easy enough to get down.

$20,000 - $30,000???? OMG, I would totally keep looking around! Even if you had to go out of state within driving distance (3-4 hours) that would still be worth it to me not to pay that much. I'm not in your area (I'm in the Pacific NW) but I was a self-pay patient and I paid a little over $10,000 for everything, including 90 days of all follow up care (including any fills performed in that period). I didn't stay overnight in the hospital, but I could have as long as I checked out within 24 hours of checking in without additional cost (9 am - 9 am, for example). The figures you got sound just insane to me. I went to a Center of Excellence, and I think as long as you look at those practices (which are rated on number of surgeries performed and their outcomes), you can be confident in the level of care. I have to believe there will be one within an accessible distance of you that would cost less than $20,000-$30,000! Good luck!

So one of the things I'm still working on figuring out nearly 8 weeks after banding is what foods are worth it for me to eat. This is a new equation in my life. Before banding, I just ate. Half the time I didn't think about what I was putting in my mouth (if I did, I would have lived in a state of perpetual self-disgust) and the other half, I just didn't care. I was already fat and unhealthy, so why stress about the food that was making me that way? Clearly, I was eating too many calories, but now I'm realizing that the amount of calories I was eating may have mattered less than whether those calories were worth eating. What I mean by that is that as I make better, more sensible food choices, it is becoming clearer to me that "real food" is much more satisfying than the alternatives. "Real food" is a hot topic these days. You can find whole books about it in your local bookstore, whole pages of books on the topic, if you cruise through Amazon. For my purposes, though, when I talk about real food, I'm referring to anything that isn't processed or prepackaged. Things like eggs (pasture raised, please), meat (ditto), milk (three for three), vegetables (organic, please), fruits (yuppers), and grains (certainly in the "o" column). To many, my obsession with organics and pasture-raised animals may make me a snob or a hippie, but I'm okay with that. Even before banding, I preferred to choose those foods when possible, but now I'm realizing that the alternatives aren't worth it. I try to keep my calories at somewhere around 1000/day. I say around, because there are days I eat 850 and days I eat 1400. Mostly, I average between 1000 and 1100. Before banding, I could get 1000 calories having coffee, a piece of toast, and a single fast food sandwich, and then everything else I ate that day would be those excess calories that made me fat. Theoretically, even with the band, I could still make those food choices, but now they're just not worth it to me. Today, I would say that most of that food isn't real food, and therefore, I'd rather not eat it. This morning, I had toast and coffee for breakfast. Not the bandster's first choice, perhaps, but I find I can't eat anything too rich or too heavy in the morning without severe nausea and potential for vomiting (I've always been that way, even before banding). The difference here is that the coffee was made with real raw sugar (half a teaspoon) and organic, pasture raised half-and-half. One tablespoon of that. For a total of 37 calories. The toast was a thin slice of home-baked bread (made last night from organic flour and natural ingredients) with a teaspoon of pasture raised butter. Low in protein, but I'll have meat for lunch and dinner, so I'll have no trouble meeting my protein goal for the day. So far for the day, I've had 137 calories, less than 15% of my allowance for the day, and every single one of those calories was totally worth it. They all tasted good, none of them cost the environment more than necessary, and all of them allowed me to live with my band while feeling content and satisfied. If I'd tweaked that just a little, gotten a small nonfat latte and a bagel with non-fat cream cheese from Starbucks, for example, I'd have eaten 500 calories of food that wasn't really worth it to me. Even if the band had stopped me at half the bagel, that would still have been 250 calories (113 more than I actually ate). It would have contained less fat, but also less satisfaction and it wouldn't have tasted as good. To me, the unprocessed "real food" I ate at home was a better, healthier choice and worked with my band. True, a lot of bandsters would tell me I should have had Greek yogurt instead. Or maybe a scrambled egg. There are days when I do that, but here's my confession: I love bread. Love it. It is my favorite of all foods. I adore it more than ice cream (meh) or potato chips (one of my trigger foods and a life-long addiction for me). Give me a choice between a handful of chocolate and a piece of fresh baked bread (home-made or from a real bakery) and I will go for the bread 9-1/2 times out of 10. My brother and sister-in-law are gluten intolerant, and have cut all products containing wheat out of their diets. I'd rather cut off my own arm. Seriously, I can't live without bread. Which could be a problem for a bandster, both because of the low protein/high carb nature of bread, and because the texture of bread can have trouble passing through the band. But here's the thing. "Real" bread (the kind from the bakery or from my very own oven) passes through the band pretty well. It has fiber and texture and it tastes so good, that it's worth it to me to take small bites, chew slowly, and get it through the band. Pre-sliced generic white sandwich bread? Not real food and definitely not worth it. Also lower in fiber, higher in sugar, stickier in texture, full of chemicals, AND higher in calories. Clearly the unhealthy choice. As a bandster, I have had to reshape my priorities. Homemade bread is a priority; processed, pre-sliced bread is not. It's all about priorities. And balance. For breakfast today, I had a carb-heavy, protein-light meal. For lunch, I will have a couple of slices of roast chicken (heritage breed, pasture raised) and some veggies. Or maybe a small serving a chili with pastured ground beef. The meat cost a lot more than the supermarket alternatives, but it was locally and sustainable raised and frankly, it tastes so much better that I don't feel deprived from eating only 2-3oz of it as a time. It's so full of flavor that 2oz feels more like a meal than 6oz or the alternative. For dinner, there's either the chicken or some leftovers from an organic rabbit I stewed over the weekend in red wine and prunes. And more veggies. So worth every single calorie and so, soooooooooo satisfying. One of the reasons I got the band and not another procedure like bypass was because I wanted to be able to eat and enjoy real food, I just wanted to eat less of it. I didn't want to give up my bread (obviously) or my chocolate or my steak. I wanted a smaller slice, nibble, or cut. I'm doing that with the help of the band, and because I'm choosing real food, I'm doing it with happy tastebuds and a smile on my face. ------ I hope no one interprets this as a lecture, or me claiming to be better than anyone else. My priorities are my own. I happen to live in an area where organic, pasture raised foods are easily accessible. They're sold at my local groceries and at the weekend farmer's market in my town, less than 5 miles from my house. I also only have myself to feed and worry about. I'm not trying to budget to feed myself, a husband and three kids, let alone saving for college, paying for daycare, or providing clothes to cover bodies that seem to double in size every few months. My animals and myself are the only things I have to spend my money on, so it's easy for me to justify funding my environmental and health agenda. Everyone has to do the best they can with what they have, and no one--least of all me--should fault them for it. Make your own priorities, and then live by them. I hope it brings you the same satisfaction it brings me.

First, always check with your doctor and follow his or her advice. That being said, I had my first glass of wine about 3-4 weeks after surgery. Neither my nutritionist nor my doctor ever said I had to cut out alcohol. What they DID say was to treat it like any other high-calorie/low-nutrient food and keep consumption low to avoid weight gain. I do find that since I'm eating fewer calories, the alcohol does go to my head a little faster, but I was a cheap date before banding, so it's not exactly a drastic difference. I'm 7 weeks post-op and I had a glass of wine with my dinner tonight. It was delicious

Just got back from having my second fill. This time I know better than to try to predict how it will work until it's had time to settle in. Of course I didn't notice any immediate difference (unless you count belching a couple of times within a few minutes of leaving the office, and with the way I belch after being banded, I put no store in that), but I know it will take time for the stomach to adjust to the additional pressure in the band, so for now, I'm just in waiting mode. Waiting and liquids mode today. Waiting and mushies mode tomorrow. Apparently, I am totally average so far according to my surgeon. He said most people lose 3-4 lbs per month the first couple of months until they get a sufficient level of fill. Yup, I'm right there. I told him that unless I ate a cup or more at a time, I was hungry within 2 hours of eating. Totally normal. And I also mentioned that the first fill actually seemed to make a difference for the first week or so, then the noticeable effect went away. Again, that's normal. Good to know that I'm not somehow an oddball for my experiences so far. He gave me the option of choosing between 3 levels of fill: Aggressive = adding 3cc; Moderate = Adding 2.5cc; or Conservative = Adding 2cc. I went with moderate, which brought my total fill up to 5.5cc in an 11cc Realize band. Aside from my anal retentive soul liking the idea of being at exactly half-full, I also felt this was the right decision at this time. Part of me really wanted to go with the aggressive fill, because, hey, it's not like I don't want to lose as much weight as possible as fast as possible, but the larger part of me thinks that if I can make this journey without ever experiencing a stuck episode or the joys of PBing, that would be just fine with me. Also, I'm a bit of a wuss about stomach discomfort; to me, vomiting is the most horrifying experience in the human repertoire, and I dread it for more reasons that just not wanting my band to slip. I'd rather go through just about any type of illness than have to vomit. I mean that. So the idea of going slowly seems to make sense to me. I knew I didn't want to be super conservative, because I get uber-frustrated when I don't lose, but since my surgeon is fine with filling every 3 weeks, I figured I could do 2.5 until then and see where it takes me. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, I'm going to go make some soup and pay an inordinate amount of attention to any and every sensation between my neck and my belly button. Because I'm obsessive like that. Duh!

It is a generic card, but mine has a stick on it that my doctor placed with the lot number of the band. That's nice to know for future purposes if I ever need to trace the origins of my band.

Yes, the card has the maximum fill volume printed on it as well as the "serial number" of the band (or the "patient card ID number) that lets you register online at the Realize website so that you can use their online tools if you want to help support your journey.

My primary reason was that I just couldn't justify in my mind the thought of "mutilating" healthy organs. To me it was too drastic and the natural side effects of malabsorption were too scary. That being said, my second reason was equally important: I wanted to really learn how to eat healthy and how to control my portions like a normal person, and I felt the band was the best teaching tool for that purpose. I can eat any type of food I want without dumping syndrome, but I'm learning that making healthy choices (healthy Protein, veggies, not too heavy on carbs) makes me more satisfied and keeps me that way longer. My weight loss may be slower than a bypass patient's, but I truly believe that this way I can carry the things I've learned on through the rest of my life.

Good luck! I left which type of band to install up to Dr Jan. He went with Realize. According to him there's no real difference in results that he's seen. I think the only thing is how each one fits your anatomy. I'm happy with mine so far! 21 lbs down!

Congratulations to both you and your hubby! Hope all continues smoothly on your journey.

I have an 11cc Realize band. My doctor gave me a card when he discharged me from the hospital to keep in my wallet. It has all the info about my band in case any other medical professional treating me needs the info. It's pre-printed by the band company with all the band info and my surgeon just filled in his name and the date of the surgery. Did you not receive one of these?

Well, I finally did it! I finally lost an amount of weight in one week that didn't show up on the scale as 0.something or 1.something. This week, I lost 2.8 lbs!!! (Picture me doing a happy dance here. It involves sparkles. And trained poodles.) This feels almost like I've got a lap band. It's hard sometimes to read about how fast other people are losing weight when I've been losing mostly a pound a week, if I'm lucky. 2.8 brings me real satisfaction. Even if it doesn't happen like this every week, getting a result like this at least every once in a while is like a shot of inspiration. I can take this and run with it. GO ME!!!

Thank you for sharing. I have a great relationship with my mom and she never treated me cruelly about my weight, but she still managed to give me a whollllllle bunch of food issues unintentionally. Because she was unhappy with her own weight, she always kept a close eye on mine and encouraged me to lose or put me on diets so that I "wouldn't have to go through what [she] had gone through." Guess what? I ended up just as heavy as her with a totally whacked out relationship with food and a metabolism slower than bloody molasses. Your story touched me and made me sad and inspired me all at once. You sound like you're managing to break the cycle with your own children, so congratulations for that MAJOR accomplishment!

That's a complex question! Only you can decide whether or not you're ready, but I will tell you that you can MAKE lap band work for you as long as you commit to working the lap band. That doesn't mean saying goodbye to food, just sitting it down for a serious discussion and then going to couples' counseling with it! No one can "give up" food; we need it to survive! And even giving up certain foods is difficult and part of what makes diets fail for 95% of us. That's the reason we turn to lap band. What we CAN do, though, is change our relationship with food. The band can and does help with this, but it won't do it alone. You also have to work on your mind set. You need to start seeing that while food can and should bring us pleasure and satisfaction, it isn't the key to those feelings. We can experience both in the absence of food as well. Good times and celebrations include food, but also good company and people we care about. Rewards can be other things that being us pleasure, from massages to pedicures to a good book or a planned "day without chores." Summer can be about good weather and outdoor activities and fun can be about whatever makes us smile and laugh. Food makes me smile occasionally, but I don't really get its jokes! Now, it's easy to say all those things, but harder to accomplish some of them. If you have trouble with them and it's at all possible for you, I do recommend seeing a therapist who specializes in disordered eating to help with the process (check out http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org to find one). You don't need to actually have a recognized eating disorder to benefit from their expertise. Not only can they help you understand why you feel the way you do about food, they can also help you develop concrete strategies to reshape your behavior. Best of luck! I'm certain you can do anything you set your mind to!

It's really a yes AND no question. Immediately after surgery, most people do think they feel restriction in that they are not hungry and get full fairly quickly even off liquids. The problem is that usually this doesn't last more than a couple of days to a couple of weeks, because it isn't actually the band "restricting" the amount of food you eat; it's the swelling in your stomach caused by the trauma of surgery. As your stomach heals, the swelling goes down and that initial feeling of "restriction" disappears until you begin getting sufficient fills in your band. A similar process happens with the filled band, as I understand it. You will be filled enough to experience restriction, then as you lose weight, you will lose fat in your stomach, shrinking that organ and thus making the band looser. That's why you need to go back later and get another fill to start the cycle over again. Hope that helps!

I've only had my band for 6 weeks and only have 1 fill of 3cc so far, so I don't have much restriction. So far, I can eat everything I've tried and I've tried almost everything, including bread, pasta, beef, rice, and reheated chicken breast, all of which I've heard are VERY hard for some bandsters to eat. It may be because I'm not tight enough yet to have any trouble. BTW, I'm not saying I eat a ton of all those things! I definitely watch my calories and portion sizes (eat about 1000 cal/day) but I like to have a lot of variety in my food, so I haven't cut anything out completely. That might change, but right now I'm doing well. I make smart choices (very few sweets or junk foods) but I think it's important not to deprive yourself. When I deprive, I end up going bonkers when my willpower finally breaks. By having small amounts of "unhealthy" food occasionally, I feel satisfied to do a big splurge.

I agree with everything you said, but especially this: "The band doesn't fail people; People fail the band." Unless you had an incompetent surgeon who placed the band incorrectly, or you're one of the extraordinarily rare people who had a mechanically defective band, the band works. Or maybe I should say the BAND PROGRAM works, because nothing is a magic cure for obesity, not even the band (or sleeve, or bypass, for that matter). The band is simply a key component in a system that involves eating less, eating more wisely, eating healthier, and moving your body more often. You can't just pick and choose which of those pieces of the system you're going to actually do. You have to do them all. If you don't, you won't lose weight. But the band didn't fail; the bandster did.