beane007

Thanks everyone! I am so excited to come back online and find people giving me helpful advice. Good luck to you all! Kristine

Congrats on joining us in our lapband journey's Patty. I see you got your surgery on July 25th. How are things since the big day? You've lost 40 lbs already!! I'm very happy for you. I appreciate your support and I totally agree. I never would go out and eat two chicken strips and 6 french fries before! This is really a great tool to help us all accomplish our goals. I am so happy I did this and I look forward to losing more weight over the next year. Good luck with your Journey and if you need any advice on anything let me know. I will try to help you out if I know the answers to your questions. Take care! -Kristine

Thanks Judy. I am definitely going to try to do the hands above the head thing. I appreciate your help and support. Kristine

Hi everyone. I really enjoy reading everyone's posts about their successful stories of weight loss and how the lapband has improved the quality of your lives! I too am having a lot of success...I do need some advice though. First, I have a couple of questions. I see that a lot of you have those little bars at the bottom of your posts. It tells you how much weight you lost and how much you have left to get to your goal. Where can I find this? Also, I like the one that shows the date you had surgery...where can I find this one? About the advice that I need. I was banded on May 23rd, 2012. I've lost 62 pounds so far with my starting weight being 360 being 5'9''. (YAY I'm under 300 lbs!!). I am only 25 years old and a lot of people have been telling me that I won't really need to worry about my skin hanging. I do however notice significant changes occuring. My boobs were a lot bigger and they have lost weight as well as what I call the "kangaroo pouch" area. lol. My mom and other friends and family think that because I am still under 30 years old that my skin has elasticity and that I will be able to avoid skin tightening surgeries, but I am losing weight so fast! I really do want to loose weight and keep my skin tight, so what exercises will help me achieve the goal of not having hanging skin in my arms, legs, kangaroo pouch area, and boobs? I want my skin to be real tight-please keep this in mind when giving me advice. Do you think that because I am 25 I am young enough that my skin will go back to normal? I have a band that holds 15 ccs and I am at 5 ccs right now. I have an appointment set up for next Thursday and I wanted to get a small fill because sometimes I find myself eating more than what I want to eat. I also can eat things they want you not to eat. I have chicken tenders when my friends and I go out and sometimes I eat a few french fries. For the most part I have been eating hard boiled eggs, chicken, and cheese usually.. I don't eat large portions, this I know for sure because look at how much weight I am losing. For instance tonight I went out with friends and I wound up eating 2 chicken tenders out of the six that were served. I also had 6 french fries. I still sometimes think this is too much because I thought we were only supposed to be able to eat like 2 tablespoons at a time...Am I eating too much? Also, I find myself having problems being able to eat in the morning, or rather everytime I take my first few bites of a meal. I get an uncomfortable feeling sometimes even when I am only drinking my diet green tea. I think maybe I try drinking too fast or maybe I am eating too fast, but I thought that since it is only liquid it should go down easy and not give me problems. Sometimes I wind up throwing up the liquid and then I try drinking again and things are fine. This doesn't happen often, but I don't enjoy throwing up so any suggestions? I also cannot burp AT ALL since the surgery. Weird right? Is this normal? Whenever I try to burp after drinking something or eating a meal I usually wind up regurgatating whatever it is that is in my stomach so I just don't try to force the air out. I just sit with that uncomfortable feeling of having gas inside my stomach that I know I want out but can't get out of else I will throw up. Is this weird or have any of you experienced this too? Anyway, I am proud of my weight loss. I am not too worried about the uncomfortable feelings I sometimes get while eating or drinking. I think I am doing pretty well with things since my surgery and I am very happy that I am moving in the right direction. I hope some of you that have been doing this for awhile now can give me some extra insight and tips (especially about the skin thing and exercises I can do to help prevent myself from having to get skin removal surgery!!).

Hey...Yeah, the first week is a bummer. Don't worry though it gets a lot better! I remember my first week. I am only 2 months since I had my lapband surgery. I've already lost 62 pounds! I drank liquid only for the first week and it really didn't bother me too much because I was in the same position you are in. I was feeling sick, burping (or trying to burp because ever since the surgery I really can't burp), and I just felt so weak and awful. I'm telling you, the more you get up and move around, the easier it gets! Just remember we are all different and some people can make it through nice and easy. This is your journey, so stay positive! I promise you that I felt the same way about it being worse than I thought it would, but the second I started getting positive things started getting a lot better. Watch some TV, relax, walk around as much as possible, and look forward to watching the weight drop off of you! Good luck with everything.

So I am two weeks until surgery and I must say I am pretty nervous about everything. I know I want this more than anything because I want to get my life back...but I am also second guessing things thinking about the fact that I will no longer be able to go out and eat the foods that I have been used to for so long. Do we all go through this second guessing stage? I kind of hope to hear that this is normal and that some people had the same thoughts thinking about cancelling their surgery, but then knowing that is not what is the right thing to do. I keep thinking is this surgery something I should be doing? Why can't I just lose weight the "right" way. Am I really taking the easy way out? Am I going to want to eat things like cakes or wings at wing night and will I not be able to? I am just unsure about the surgery because I want to lose weight more than ever but I think the hardest part is getting through it mentally and overcoming the want for food. I'm a fat girl, what can I say? IS THIS NORMAL? IS ANYONE EXPERIENCING THESE FEELINGS 2 WEEKS PRE OP?