dylanmiles23

Only one-third of the population of the United States is at a normal weight. The other two-thirds are overweight or obese – or morbidly obese. Most Americans are very interested in finding a solution for obesity.


If you’re like most of the population, you’ve probably tried a bunch of methods for losing weight. If you’re still searching, then you probably didn’t find one that worked for the long term. Sure, maybe they worked for a short time, or helped you lose a little bit of weight, but eventually you regained the weight.
With so many advances in science and so much interest in an obesity treatment, you’d think there’d be a magic cure for obesity by now. But, there isn’t. These are your current options for losing weight. Each of them relies on eating fewer calories than you expend.
Dieting: eating less or choosing lower-calorie foods so that your total intake is lower.
Exercising more: burning more calories through physical activity.
Dieting and Exercising: naturally, doing both would lead to faster weight loss.
Weight Loss Drugs: these can increase your metabolism or decrease your appetite.
Weight Loss Surgery: make your includes diet and exercise

Weight cycling, or yo-yo dieting, is no fun – but that’s what so many of us are doing! In fact, more than 90 percent of people who rely on diets and exercise for weight loss gain their weight back soon – or don’t even achieve their goal weight in the first place. For most people, the problem with diets and exercise is that they’re temporary; people get bored with them and stop following their programs.
Weight loss drugs have their own problems.
There aren’t too many options that are approved by the food and Drug Administration (FDA).
They’re not necessarily effective – they may help you lose a few pounds, but probably won’t get 100 pounds off of you.
They’re usually only allowed for a short time, such as 12 weeks or a year.
Like all drugs, they have side effects.

Weight loss surgery is an increasingly well-known option for weight loss. Many patients who have had previous failed diet attempts are able to lose hundreds of pounds and keep them off. Weight loss surgery procedures can be restrictive, which means that they make your stomach smaller or help you feel full faster so that you eat less. They can be malabsorptive, which means that the amount of nutrient that you absorb decrease. Or, they can be both restrictive and malapsorptive.
Not all weight loss surgeries are the same, though, so you’d better look at your options carefully if you think you’re interested. Chapter 2 of The BIG Book on the LAP-BAND® describes each of the common weight loss surgeries and how they work.
Vertical banded gastroplecty: A restrictive procedure, also known as stomach stapling, in which the surgeon staples shut the majority of your stomach pouch.
Vertical sleeve gastroplasty: A restrictive procedure in which the surgeon removes the majority of your stomach pouch and covers the incision with a “sleeve.”
Sleeve plication: A restrictive procedure, also known as curvature plication, in which most of your stomach is folded over so you can only use a tiny pouch.
Laparoscopic adjustable banding (Lap-band): A restrictive, fully reversible procedure in which a band is placed around the upper portion of your stomach so you feel full faster.
Gastric bypass: A restrictive and malapsorptive procedure in which part of your stomach blocked off and your small intestine is resectioned.

So what is it going to take for you to lose weight and get healthy? It may seem impossible, especially if you’ve tried and failed so many times before, but one of the most important messages in Chapter 2 of The BIG Book on the LAP-BAND® is that you can get healthy! Successful weight loss requires lifestyle changes and a serious, long-term commitment. For some people, losing weight and keeping it off also requires the lap-band. The important point is that you can do it if you set your mind to it and have the right tools.

Tis the season ready or not! The holiday season can be one of the most joyful times of the year with its dazzling colors, familiar music, social gatherings, and yes, food, food and more food! For those who have recently lost a significant amount of weight following WLS or have remained serious throughout the year about managing the healthy weight they have sustained since having WLS, the food-infested holiday season can present physical and emotional challenges.


Tis the season ready or not! The holiday season can be one of the most joyful times of the year with its dazzling colors, familiar music, social gatherings, and yes, food, food and more food! For those who have recently lost a significant amount of weight following WLS or have remained serious throughout the year about managing the healthy weight they have sustained since having WLS, the food-infested holiday season can present physical and emotional challenges. For at least five solid weeks, food is even more ubiquitous than usual in our eating-obsessed society. It's almost impossible to avoid fanciful confections almost anywhere you go from Thanksgiving until the end of the year. Cookies, candy, fudge and a host of other home-made delights in the break room at the office. Gift baskets abounding with fruits, nuts and bottles of apple cider arrive at the doorstep. samples of gooey baked goods with sparkling decorations are handed out from kiosks in the grocery store. And bubbly libations accompany the gourmet delicacies served at every office and neighborhood social gathering.

For people who have had WLS and are serious about maintaining a healthy weight, the fact that the average American gains 7 & 12 pounds throughout the holiday season, can evoke strong feelings of anxiety.

Another anxiety-producing holiday stressor can be the family gathering. Most of us spend time with relatives during the holiday season. Like food, there are lots of varieties of families; some food and some families are healthy and others are not! Regardless of the emotional health of one's family, nearly all family holiday gatherings revolve around a meal, featuring time-honored secret family recipes and dishes that aunts, uncles and cousins eagerly await all year long.

At no other time of year are there so many triggers that have the potential to steer off course those who have used food as a way to deal with emotions. In her brilliant, practical book, The Beck Diet Solution , Dr. Judith Beck notes several categories of triggers that can ultimately lead to eating. Three of these categories are emotional, biological, and environmental.

Identify the Triggers in this scenario:

Your family has decided to have Thanksgiving dinner at your Grandma Smith's house this year. You haven't been to that house in nearly a dozen years, since moving out of state. When you were a child you adored spending time at your grandma's house. She is the person who taught you about gardening, how to sew, and how to bake. It's hard to think about Grandma Smith without recalling the smell of fresh bread wafting throughout the house. As soon as you walk in the door, the smell of her homemade biscuits mingled with the traditional aroma of the turkey and dressing takes over your entire being. Before you can turn and walk toward the kitchen, you see cousin Sally. Sally was the mean cousin when you were kids. She called you fatty Patty and always tattled to the adults when you did anything wrong. You are assaulted by her booming voice, Hey, there, fatty Patty!' What have you done to yourself? You're not fat anymore! You wish you could just punch her, but refrain from doing so as Aunt Cindy wraps you in a bear hug. That smell! Her perfume. It takes you back to the time you ate three pieces of her birthday cake before dinner. Her husband, uncle Bill had screamed at you for what seemed like an hour, but Aunt Cindy had wrapped you up in a hug then like she was doing now and she was wearing that same scent! You finally make it into the living room and see the old blue rocker that you and Grandma sat in countless evenings while she read to you. Your eyes mist with tears. However, your thoughts are interrupted by the angry sounds of two male voices coming from the next room. They were at it again. Your twin uncles. They never got along well and used to get into fist fights, scaring you when you were a child. You would take a bowl of Grandma's homemade cookies and hide in the closet upstairs until they would leave. Just the sound of their harsh tones made you turn and look for a sweet treat to take your mind off the fear you felt, even now as an adult.

There are lots of triggers in this story with potential for thoughts and feelings that could lead to eating as a coping response. Emotional triggers include reminiscing on the happy memories of spending time with Grandma in the garden, while sewing and when baking in the kitchen. Cousin Sally's name-calling would certainly trigger an emotional response, as would the memory of Uncle Bill screaming at a young Patty who ate Aunt Sally's birthday cake.

Biological triggers in this scenario would be the sight and smell of the food when Patty walked into Grandma's. Salivating at the thought or actual smell of the food is also a biological trigger. The sound of angry voices producing anxiety is another example of a biological trigger, as is the smell of Aunt Cindy's perfume.

The blue rocking chair in the living room would be an example of an environmental trigger. The closet upstairs where Patty hid when she was a child is also an environmental trigger.

Triggers and Emotional Eating

Songs often evoke strong emotions. When you hear a song that played at your high school prom where you slow danced with your first love, you experience the joyful emotions you did when you were in that high school gymnasium-turned-ballroom. Holidays, and especially family holiday gatherings similarly evoke strong emotions. For an emotional eater, this can lead to high calorie disasters. In the scenario above, Patty experienced a range of emotions based on in-the-moment triggers and intensified by memories from the past.

Emotional eaters often turn to food when they are experiencing emotions, sometimes as a way to avoid unpleasant feelings. It may be tempting for Patty to grab an entire pie off the counter and run to the upstairs closet to gobble the pie down in an attempt to get away from the hurt of Cousin Sally's rude remark, to forget about the smell of Aunt Cindy's perfume and the memory of being severely scolded by Uncle Tim years ago, and to quiet the sound of her twin uncles' arguing.

Triggers are powerful. In order to make it safely through this minefield of eating triggers during the holiday season, a person needs to have a plan in place ahead of time and then they need to utilize the plan throughout the season!

A Post Op & A Doc have created an entire program for WLS patients to help them get through the holidays while maintaining their commitment to their health. You can download the plan called APOD's GPS Great Plan for Success and take it with you as you head into the holiday season! Go to www.conniestapletonphd.com/apod/ and look on the right hand side of the page to print off your copy!

The following Ten Tips can also help you prepare ahead of time for dealing in a healthy way if you are overwhelmed by the urge to eat after being triggered at the family holiday gathering. (You can use these to safely navigate the holiday trays in office break rooms, at neighborhood social gatherings, and any other place you are deluged by tempting holiday goodies!)
Anticipate triggers. Think about situations you are likely to encounter throughout the holiday season that pose threats to your healthy eating habits. Make a list of probable triggers you will encounter at your family holiday gatherings and use the following steps to deal with them in healthy ways.
Visualize healthy responses to triggers. Instead of responding to triggers in an unhealthy way (yelling, arguing, eating) start preparing now to respond to them in a healthy way by visualizing yourself calmly walking away from arguments. Imagine yourself walking outside and taking a few minutes for yourself to regroup before returning to the situation. Picture yourself finding a place to call a supportive friend and talking about how you're feeling. All of these healthy responses will keep you away from the high calorie options you may have turned to in the past.
Learn quick relaxation techniques. When we encounter triggers, we often become tense, anxious, scared or angry. In a highly emotional state, you are more likely to react rather than respond. Reacting may mean mindless eating of empty calories. If you are able to utilize a simple, quick relaxation tool, you will be better able to respond to triggers in a healthy, rational manner. One example of a simple relaxation techniques is to very slowly breathe in and out 12 times. You can do this in a room full of people and no one will even know! Another simple technique is to slowly count to 10, 20, or 100 however long it takes you to feel calm enough to respond in a healthy way. Get away from the crowd and mentally note ten things you are grateful for. This will definitely improve your frame of mind and you can resume your activities with a better outlook, a sure defense against harmful overeating.
Remind yourself why. In preparing for the holiday gatherings, write answers to these questions and have it on your smartphone or an index card to read if you feel yourself getting overwhelmed emotionally and/or feel tempted to eat things you will regret later:
What are the negative consequences of eating unhealthy foods and of overeating?
What are the reasons I decided to lose weight and improve my health habits?
What are the benefits thus far of losing weight and improving my health habits?
[*]Say to yourself, I made up my mind! When you're aware that your desire to eat/overeat has been triggered, say to yourself, I made up my mind: a. to stick to my healthy eating plan. b. to focus on relationships rather than food. c. to honor my recent weight loss by maintaining healthy behaviors during the holiday season. d. whatever else you have made up your mind about!
[*]Focus on your own behavior. It's easy to get worked up about things other people are saying (perhaps they make negative comments to, or about you or others). It's just as easy to get upset over other people's behavior (family members who may be arguing, or drinking too much, or vying for everyone's attention). Focus on your own behavior. After all, you have no responsibility for anyone else's! And you have full responsibility for you own behavior which, by the way, includes what, when, and how much you eat!
[*]Keep a progress piece in your pocket . A progress piece can be anything that reminds you of the progress you have made losing weight and/or improving your health. For example, if you are now able to bend over and tie your shoes after losing weight, carry a shoestring with you. If you recently flew on an airplane and no longer needed a seatbelt extender, carry your boarding pass or a picture of a plane with you. When you're tempted to engage in unhealthy eating, look at your progress piece and give yourself credit for the hard work you've done and remind yourself of the commitment you made to continue your healthy behaviors.
[*]STOP. Imagine a large STOP sign in your mind that you can pull out whenever you need to before indulging in food (or behavior) that you will later regret.
[*]Set boundaries. If people give you a difficult time for eating healthy (Why can't you just have one bite? or You must have a piece of Aunt Sally's pie or you'll hurt her feelings.), set boundaries by saying, I've made up my mind to eat healthy, even on Thanksgiving. I don't expect you to understand, but I hope you will respect my decision.
[*]Plan your work and work your plan. Take an index card (or make a note on your smart phone) with any of the above suggestions or other things that work for you to help you get through difficult food and/or family situations so that you maintain your healthy lifestyle behaviors. Read your reminders any time you feel the need to and UTILIZE them!


Happy holidays to you and your families! Enjoy the relationships they last so much longer than the food!

The holiday season is here and it’s time for us all to quickly gain ten pounds. What? Why would I say that? I say that because it’s written all over the place. Over the next few weeks, you are going to see and hear references to our tendency to gain weight during this time of year in every newspaper, magazine, website, blog and television news program. And while the opportunities to eat may increase this time of year and the kinds of foods pushed on us are often not the healthiest, you don’t have to gain weight. However, if you expect to…you will.


The holiday season is here and it’s time for us all to quickly gain ten pounds. What? Why would I say that? I say that because it’s written all over the place. Over the next few weeks, you are going to see and hear references to our tendency to gain weight during this time of year in every newspaper, magazine, website, blog and television news program. And while the opportunities to eat may increase this time of year and the kinds of foods pushed on us are often not the healthiest, you don’t have to gain weight. However, if you expect to…you will.
What do expectations have to do with weight gain? Think of expectations as a combination of predictions and learned patterns of behavior. Outcomes that have occurred in the past, we generally expect to happen again. Take Thanksgiving for example, or what I like to call “National Binge Eating Day.” Thanksgiving is one of those few days of the year where the holiday seems to be about overeating. Of course, Thanksgiving is supposed to be about taking the opportunity to give thanks for how fortunate we are to live in this great country and to count our blessings for what we have. However, if you ask most Americans what comes to mind when they think of Thanksgiving I’ll bet turkey, stuffing, pie and football come long before giving thanks. More importantly, it’s not only food and eating that we think of but overeating and overindulging. This is so common that it’s often parodied in television commercials. Companies that manufacture antacids run ads showing people with exploding pant buttons or slumped back in the big armchair following the big meal. Thanksgiving, holiday parties and overeating seem to be synonymous.
Many of us expect to overeat on Thanksgiving and at holiday parties so we inadvertently mentally gear up for this to happen. With this expectation of overeating in mind, our behavior becomes less controllable…you’re psychologically setting the stage for a binge to occur by expecting a huge meal to be served and by recalling previous Thanksgivings when you overate. Similarly, this is the season of holiday parties. Holiday parties tend to include foods that are rich, highly caloric and plentiful. And let’s not forget the alcohol. When you attend holiday parties, many of us expect these foods and drinks to be available and we are more likely to overindulge if that has been our pattern in the past. You’re certainly not a drone who is unable to make change, but it is infinitely less likely unless you take active steps to make that change. What can you do to prevent overeating at this time of year and gaining those extra pounds?
Change your expectations by planning what you will do ahead of time. On the morning of Thanksgiving, think about what the likely layout will be where you are having the meal. Have you been there before? Do you know what to expect to be on the table? If so, plan ahead. Make some decisions about what you will eat and how much. Promise yourself that you will not overeat. After all, it’s just one meal and ironically many people who overeat say they’re not particularly fond of Thanksgiving food. They just get caught up in the collective binge mentality and the rest is history. If you plan ahead and carefully consider what to do instead of binging, you have a much better chance of controlling yourself and feeling good about your eating behavior afterwards.

Consider that while eating may be a significant and enjoyable part of holiday parties and gatherings, OVEREATING does not need to be. Try not to give yourself permission to overindulge. Let’s face it…eating is fun and enjoyable and is a large part of holiday merriment. However, there is no fun in feeling nauseas or uncomfortable just after the meal and guilty and self-deprecating hours later.

Don’t starve yourself on Thanksgiving morning or on the day of a holiday party. This is one of the most common, yet foolish strategies people employ. The calories you give up by skipping Breakfast and lunch usually pale in comparison to the calorie content of the evening binge at Thanksgiving or the holiday party. Instead, eat normally during the day which may actually help keep you from binging later. You are far more likely to control yourself if you are mostly full during the day rather than starving when you walk in the door of the party.

Consider making some eating compromises. Who said you have to have turkey only on Thanksgiving? Is pecan pie banned at other times of year? Consider having the foods that truly are once a year items rather than loading up on everything. And even then, you don’t need five pounds of the special foods. If you only get to eat your grandmother’s special stuffing once a year, you certainly shouldn’t pass that up. However, I promise you that eating a ton of it will not make you happier than having two nice size tablespoons of the stuff. Again, plan ahead and make decisions earlier in the day.

Watch the booze. Alcohol causes our judgment to get a little fuzzy. You are going to be more successful controlling your behavior if your brain is firing on all cylinders. If you drink too much too early in the day, you’re going to have a tougher time sticking to whatever plan you created. Also, too much alcohol causes us to make other foolish decisions. There are enough unfortunate tragedies that happen this time of year. Make sure you’re not a part of one.

I’m not suggesting in any way that you be a killjoy and I certainly don’t believe that it’s necessary to avoid holiday parties or gatherings where food is available. By planning ahead, changing your expectations, and making a few specific eating compromises, you can truly have your cake and eat it too.
Happy Holidays!

Allergan, maker of the Lap-Band® and many other medical devices, made the bariatric headlines on October 30, 2012, when a news article (click the link below to read it) revealed that they’re considering selling the Lap-Band® part of their business. I don’t have all the details behind the story, but I do have plenty of opinions about it, so I’m sharing those opinions with you in this article.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL3E8LU46K20121030


BIG NEWS IN THE BAND WORLD
On October 30, 2012, a Reuters article revealed that Allergan is considering selling the Lap-Band® to another medical device company due to declining sales of the band. Not surprisingly, this news has caused some excitement in the bariatric surgery community. When I first read the article, my immediate thought was that I don't have enough information to make it the subject of an article of my own. I'm still missing a lot of information, but have plenty of opinions about it (which can come as no surprise to you), so I've decided to give you my opinions with you in this article from today’s special edition of the Bandwagon® on the Road e-newsletter.
ALLERGAN PEDDLES THE BAND
I have a hard time drawing any conclusions (pro or con) about the band itself based on the Reuters report. The decline in Lap-Band® sales could be the result of management or other business problems rather than due to a problem with the band itself. It's highly unlikely that Allergan will ever reveal the whole story to anyone but their team of attorneys and board of directors.
So, what could this hot news story mean? As you read on, please remember: these are only personal opinions from an ex-bandster who’s fairly well-informed but not a medical professional and in no way associated with Allergan or any other medical device or other company in the world of bariatric surgery. For what it’s worth, here’s my take on the story.
The US economy is in tough shape, the popularity of bariatric surgery in general is leveling off, and insurance coverage for bariatric surgery is still a challenge. Allergan is not alone in this - Johnson & Johnson must face the same challenge in marketing the Realize™ Band. The story of what's really behind all this is clouded by the reactions of the media and of band-bashers who sing the "I told you so" song because they assume (without any credible basis at this point) that Allergan's decision is related to the safety and/or efficacy of the band.
SO, WHAT’S THE REAL STORY?
All the other bariatric surgery procedures now performed in the USA can have serious complications and failure rates, but it's easier to point the finger of blame at a single manufacturer of a medical device than it is to blame the thousands of surgeons who are doing bariatric procedures that don't happen to use a medical device. The FDA isn't looking over the shoulders of all those surgeons the way it scrutinizes Allergan or Johnson & Johnson. When Dr. John Doe stops doing bariatric surgery and goes back to yanking out gall bladders, no one leads a parade down Main Street waving banners about the dangers of the procedures Dr. Doe was doing. Except in rare cases (such as the sad story of my original surgeon), nobody's even discussing Dr. Doe's surgical expertise or behavior. It's an example of what I call the David & Goliath Syndrome. A big company like Allergan is an easy target thanks to its size and visibility. The general public may step on Dr. Doe's fingers but otherwise will kick him to the curb in eagerness to throw rocks at Allergan.
One of the hurdles facing any manufacturer of an adjustable gastric band is that it is (in my opinion) the bariatric procedure that requires the most patient education, aftercare, and support. In the 5 years since I was banded, I have encountered plenty of evidence of bariatric clinics doing a great job of that, but I've also encountered clinics that are failing at it, to the detriment of their patients. Not because they're doing something wrong, per se, but because they're directed by a surgeon (or team of surgeons) who was trained to think of surgery of any nature as an in-and-out deal. They're used to seeing the patient 3 times: a pre-op visit; in the operating room (with an unconscious patient); one post-op visit; and never again unless the patient experiences a complication that requires more surgery. That's fine when the surgery involves removing a gall bladder or a mole or a wisdom tooth, but it's a set-up for failure with band patients. The bariatric surgeon who vetted Bandwagon told me several years ago that the band manufacturers make few demands on the surgeons or clinics that buy their products because they don't want to marginalize the customers who don't follow the manufacturer's advice but have acceptable patient outcomes.
Avoiding marginalization of customers is a smart business decision but a poor medical decision, and I think it's a mistake for us to view surgeons only as super-wealthy, super-powered medical demi-gods anointed by a Supreme Being and the ASMBS. They're also customers, and just like you and me when we're shopping for a new car, they're looking for a product that has reliable quality and performance at a price they can live with. They are business people who want to make money (to pay their staff, their malpractice insurance premiums, their colossal student loans, and their kids' college funds). Sure they want to practice the art (and science) of medicine, but they can't do that very well if they can't pay their bills.
Finally, keep in mind that someone, somewhere is going to end up with the Lap-Band in some form. It is highly unlikely that Lap-Band® research & development, its technology and FDA approval, to say nothing of the existing customer base, will drop to the bottom of the bariatric pond and never be seen again. Both Allergan and the new owner will legally and ethically have to stand behind their product, with the details of that worked out to the last detail by teams of expensive attorneys and insurance companies. Even surgeons who stop doing band surgery to concentrate on other procedures will still have the basic skill and knowledge to provide fills and other aftercare to their band patients.
Although I lost my beloved band in April 2012, I do not regret having Lap-Band® surgery and if I were starting my WLS journey today, I would ask my surgeon's opinion about the Allergan decision and also ask how (or if) it will affect his/her practice. The answers to those questions would be towards the top of a long list of questions I'd be asking before deciding to have surgery. And if I still had my band, I'd be asking my surgeon the same questions so that I could go forward with some degree of comfort (if not 100% satisfaction) that I'd have someone to turn to should I need band help in the future. I most certainly would not be rushing off to make an appointment with the Speedy Weight Loss Surgery Revision Center, or at least not until I'd done plenty of homework on the procedures offered by the quacks at Speedy. Trading in a car just because it's 2 years old has never made sense to me, and if it isn’t broke, why fix it?
Although my journey from Lap-Band® to vertical sleeve gastrectomy ended up taking 6 months, I'm still nagged about it by a little doubting voice, especially when my sleeve is giving me trouble. Should I have chosen the sleeve, or not? Should I have risked the return to morbid obesity, or gamble on more surgery? There are no easy answers to questions like that. If there were a cure for obesity, I'd be first in line for it, but until that cure is invented, I'm making the best of what I've got.

I have read so many postings of banders wanting to know what to eat, what can they eat, etc.... I would like to share my evening meal with everyone to show that banders can eat just like everyone else and can enjoy it. Plus I want to brag about it!! lol
Ok, let me set the mood. It rained all day Saturday thru Sunday morning, then the sun came out for the day, by Sunday evening it was gorgeous outside, about 78 degrees, crisp air with the smell of the rain, perfect for a BBQ. This is the menu my husband and I enjoyed:
1 glass (5oz) of Zinfandel wine from my favorite Texas winary (drank while BBQing)
1 3oz bacon wrapped beef tenderloin (I didn't eat the bacon,I could but I didn't want it)
1/4 cup Butternut Squash that was brushed with Olive Oil and grilled (about 7 minutes a side) (Note: Squash was grown in our garden so it tastes that much better!)
1/2 cup spinach, walnut & fat free cheddar cheese salad with homemade Balsamic vinaigrette
The whole meal including the wine was just under 350 calories. The beautiful evening (& company) was priceless!

Since I've had the lapband in Feb 2011 I have lost a total of 64 pounds ( I had a baby 2 months ago and already lost all baby weight plus 10 pounds more ) my bmi was a 42
Now it is 29!!!
I wear any sizes between 11-13 but I still feel fat..
Does anyone feel like me or am I crazy!!

It was about this time a year ago I was taken back for my surgery. I really wasn't nervous at all and I really didn't know what to expect after being banded. I only knew I was a huge man and I was tired of not being a active person I wanted to be. it hurt me to know that people saw me as a obese man. I didn't realize then I was treated different because of my size.
I want to say this has been a year more of self discovery than anything else. Though it has not been a perfect year with ups and downs with diet, exercise and motivation. I can honestly say, my life is so much better this year than probably the previous 18 or so years.
For those that have been banded or those thinking about it, know this, it's a journey of self exploration. It is a journey ofnyou finding out things about you that you didn't even know. As you take this journey open your body, soul and spirit to new experiences. If you live in the city, take advantage of the arts. Take advantage of fun runs, join a league team. Just open yourself up. If you live in a rural area, enjoy the nature God has blessed you with. You can become a mentor to others and support them in their journey in weight loss. We know more about losing weight than most doctors do. Help someone else, even if they haven't been banded.
I will finish here but I'd like to say, may God richly bless each and everyone here.

Just wanted to updat yall on my weight journey so far! Soooo
Starting weight 287
Surgery weight 271
First fill weight 260
Second fill weight 255
Third fill weight 246
Weight loss since surgery 25 pounds
Total weight loss 42...im so proud of myself!!

Red meat is an excellent source of Protein Iron and zinc, important nutrients for all but particularly after weight loss surgery. However, after surgery, some people may have difficulty eating red meat. Learn how to make meat work for you.


Red meat is an excellent source of protein iron and zinc, important nutrients for all but particularly after weight loss surgery.
After surgery, people may report difficulty eating red meat. This may be due to a poor eating technique, or not knowing how to best prepare food. To eat meat comfortably it needs to be tender, cut into small pieces the size of a five-cent piece and chewed thoroughly – until it is a puree in the mouth.
Whilst a steak on the barbeque or grill can be difficult to tolerate, marinating, slow cooking, or cooking in a sauce can help tenderise meat making it easier to chew.
Lean red meat, trimmed of fat is the best choice as it contains less teaspoons of fat and saturated fat.
However, the fat in meat can help it to soften during cooking and adds flavour. Lean meat is therefore often assumed to lack tenderness and flavour.
Whilst lean cuts of meat can be expensive, cheaper cuts with the fat removed respond well to marinating and slow cooking so can be an economical choice. Try slow cooking in crushed tomatoes, Soup bases or salt reduced stock with lots of vegetables and your favourite herbs. To reduce the amount of fat, skim from the top prior to serving.
Marinating meat is another way to enhance the flavour and tenderness of meat. Whilst adding oil to a marinade may seem like defeating the purpose of choosing lean meat, unsaturated oils are a better choice than the naturally occurring saturated fat in meat. Commercial marinades can be high in sugar.
Try the following ideas for tasty homemade marinades:
red wine, a dash of olive oil, Worcestershire sauce and garlic complements red meat
for an Asian flavour combine soy sauce, a dash of sesame oil, sherry oil, white pepper and honey
lime juice, sweet chilli sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, coriander and a dash of peanut oil adds a Thai flavour to meat
white wine, wholegrain mustard and crushed garlic cloves works well with beef
lemon juice, oregano, garlic and a dash of olive oil complements lamb.

These tips and others like these can be found in our book, Spoons for Thought.

Are mirrors and scales telling you lies? Don’t let them sabotage your weight loss and peace of mind.


THE MIRROR LIES
I don't know about you, but I have trick mirrors in my house. In fact, trick mirrors lurk everywhere, in public restrooms, department stores, hotel lobbies and on several walls of my health club. These mirrors never tell the truth. Like a funhouse mirror, they tell me I'm fat, thin, old, young, ugly or beautiful. Rarely do those messages match up with reality. If you have trick mirrors in your world, do not believe their lies!
You know I'm kidding, right? The trick isn't in the mirror, it's in my brain. Because of decades of denial, self-hatred, weight fluctuation, aging, envy, societal messages (the fast food server asks me, "You want that super-sized?" while I study the skeletal body of an actress on a magazine cover), and random electrical impulses skipping crazily around my brain, I cannot accurately process data from my reflection in the mirror. This isn't unique to obese and formerly-obese people, but it's a special burden for us because as we work so hard to lose weight, we are even hungrier for positive feedback than we are hungry for food.
For this reason, I suggest that you save your Before photos and one Fat Outfit (no matter how much you hate them), keep records of your body measurements (because sometimes you'll see progress there when none shows on the scale) and document your weight loss surgery journey with monthly photos. Last Monday I looked at myself in my bathroom mirror and thought, "Damn, girl! You look good!" On Tuesday, after a weigh-in that showed no increase or decrease, I looked in that same mirror and thought, "Damn, girl! You are porking up!" At moments like that, it is a great comfort to try on my fat clothes and feel them slide off my body because they're so big, or to set a Before photo alongside a Now photo and be reminded of how far I've come.
THE scale TELLS THE TRUTH
But not the whole truth.
The scale weighs your clothes, shoes, fat, muscle, bone and Water weight. This data will vary throughout the day as you eat, drink, exercise, urinate and defecate. You can buy fancy scales that will give you readings for total body weight, fat and water weight, and all those values will fluctuate every day. You can't let those fluctuations make you crazy. Recently I tracked my weight every day over the course of a week. It went like this: up, down, down, down, up, up, with a net gain or loss of zero. When I'm trying to maintain rather than lose weight, I'm happy about that. When I’m trying to lose weight, seeing my weight creep up and up as the day goes on does absolutely nothing positive for my weight loss effort.
On the day when my early-morning weigh in showed a 3.6 pound increase, I could have let that information spoil my day, but instead I copied my British friend, Kate. I shrugged and said, "Silly cow." My body weight is just one piece of information about me. It does not tell the whole truth of my worth as a human being and a WLS patient. The scale doesn't remind me that I had lost 1.75" from my bust, waist, legs and arms when I measured myself that week. It doesn't remind me that I exceeded my weekly exercise goal by 75 minutes. It doesn't remind me that I met all of my nutritional goals, wrote 20 pages of my book manuscript, had a job interview, gave medication to my dogs, listened to my husband rant after a bad day at work, took one of my dogs to visit the nursing home residents, or any of the other things that are important to me.
I realize that the scale is our primary tool for measuring our progress as we lose or maintain our weight, but you can't let it run your life. When an inanimate object starts to dictate your thoughts and feelings, it's time to lock it in the trunk of your car or have someone hide it from you. As Kate says, keep the scale where it belongs: beneath your feet, not in your head.

I was banded on 5/24/11 and I have lost 103 pounds.
Congratulations to all on your losses! This is such a wonderful group to belong to!!!

I wish you a lot of luck. I hate Breakfast foods so I have been drinking shakes for breakfast since March and was just banded 2 1/2 weeks ago. Because of the shakes before my surgery I lost 28lbs. Since the surgery I am down another 13 lbs. Remember the Band is a band aid and not a cure. We all need help. I don't eat when under stress. I eat when bored. One thing that helps is putting clear polish on your nails. It takes 20-30 minutes to dry and by then you forget about the food. That has worked for me in the past.
Have a great weekend.

Well, today is my 8month anniversary of being banded. I have lost a total of 30 lbs but, the last mont I gained about 4 lbs back. I had my third fill yesterday and hoping that this will get me losing again. I feel like I am getting close to the green zone but, not sure. I am trying not to be frustrated with myself and the band. I have to keep reminding myself it is not the bands fault. It is me. I control myself. I am the one that makes the choices that I do.
The last six months have been crazy. I started a new position at my job, I was studying my butt off for a certification test, and We moved into a new house. So, I have been a little stressed. So, I contribute some of my down falls to that....that and laziness. I
So, I decided that I have got to get my butt in gear and do this. I really think that the band is just a tool that helps you it is not a cure. You are still going to have those crazy thoughts about food. It is just a tool to help you control yourself.
I am thinking about getting a trainer. I really need to get in the habit of working out. I know if I did this I would truely see results.
So...No more laziness!!! I am back on track and ready to kick some butt!!!
No EXCUSES!!!!
My one year anniversay of the band is in December and it's my birthday too. So...my gift to myself is to accomplish what I set out to do!!!
Happy 8month anniversary to me!!!

Bariatric surgery can fail. No one wants to talk about that, especially when we’re filled with hope about what bariatric surgery can do for us. Why does weight loss surgery fail, and what does that mean for each of us?


WHY DOES WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY FAIL?
In the bariatric community, we spend a lot of time debating about which WLS is the best – that is, which one yields the best outcome (my own definition of that is optimal weight loss with minimal complications). I think we can all agree that there’s no such thing as a perfect or one-size-fits-all bariatric surgery. If we’ve all fought weight battles long and hard enough to need or choose WLS, we can surely agree that obesity is tough to overcome. And that is, I think, the grounds for further agreement, about why WLS fails.
Here’s my premise: weight loss surgery fails because of obesity. If you’re thinking you need not read further because you already knew that, please wait until I explain a bit more. And those of you snickering in the back of the room, simmer down. I’m a natural blonde (duh) as well as an old fogey who needs time to make her point, but like Ellen DeGeneres, I do have a point.
OK, let’s continue. Some disappointment or failure can be attributed to the inadequacy of a bariatric medical device or surgical procedure or surgeon or patient, but underlying all that is the basic reality of obesity: it’s a chronic and currently incurable disease, caused by a mixture (unique to each patient) of genetics, behavior, environment and biology. Weight loss surgery may address some aspects of those factors, but not enough to cure obesity. So it fails because of obesity.
In the past, I’ve given a lot of thought to how genetics, behavior, and environment have contributed to my own case, but no more than a passing glance at the biology of it. I’m the daughter of a gifted scientist who passed on not one single gene of scientific aptitude to me (instead, I got his nose and the name McMillan).
I realize that saying that WLS fails because of obesity is like saying the ocean is wet because it contains Water, but as with many obvious facts of life, it’s easily overlooked. We go into WLS believing or at least hoping that surgery will fix enough of what’s wrong in us to help us lose weight and maintain that weight loss, but we need to remember that no WLS will cure our obesity. We need to remember that our obesity is at least partly caused by factors that are invisible to us.
Those factors were invisible to me until a few months ago, when I was asked to write a magazine article about some recent research studies that found a link between obesity and fibromyalgia. I’m uniquely qualified to write that article because I’m a veteran of both wars.
When I began researching the article, I was astounded by the dense mountain of information: scientific data, theories, probabilities and conjectures that I’d heard little or nothing of before despite my exalted status as the World’s Greatest Living Expert on the Adjustable Gastric Band. I’ve had WLS, talked to dozens of bariatric medical professionals, attended three bariatric conferences, read countless books, articles, blogs and reports, but suddenly I felt like a babe in the bariatric woods. Why hadn’t either of my bariatric surgeons (never mind my primary care physician) mentioned any of this to me? Are they unaware of it? Are they hiding it from me and the rest of their patients? Is there a conspiracy afoot?
This information is of enormous importance if only because it knocks a big hole in the old-school blame-the-patient approach. The paranoid in me wonders if the information is hidden to protect an industry or to further a political cause, but I put those thoughts aside and instead considered the very real possibility that bariatric surgeons are well aware of the obesity mountain but are practicing a form of medicine that circumvents it. They don’t climb the mountain and they don’t hike around it. They cut right through the middle of it.
THE OBESITY OCTOPUS
To explain myself now, I’ll have to resort to another simile. In a sense, bariatric surgeons treat obesity by stuffing a many-armed octopus in a sack and bludgeoning it with an axe. I’m not criticizing the surgeons. Surgery of any kind requires a breathtaking degree of confidence, skill, and audacity. Although surgery doesn’t address every waving octopus arm, it is the only effective long-term treatment for obesity available in the United States today, and I’m very grateful that I was able to have WLS and lose my excess weight as a result of it. At the same time, I sometimes worry about the future. This spring, treatment of a medical problem required removal of my band. I’ll soon have vertical sleeve gastrectomy surgery, but what if obesity takes over my life again in spite of my band and all my hard-won lifestyle changes? Are researchers working on an obesity cure now that can help me with that in the future?
WHAT CAUSES OBESITY?
It turns out that researchers have indeed been busy searching out the causes of obesity in the hope of finding a better way (or ways) to treat it, prevent it, and/or cure it.
As I mentioned above, several studies have reported a link between obesity and fibromyalgia. It’s easy to get caught up in a chicken & egg debate about that – does one disease cause the other? I don’t want to go down that road right now. Instead I want to talk about some factors that are associated with (and may be contributing to) both conditions. They are:
Non-restorative sleep – Sleep affects the production of hormones (leptin, grehlin, cortisol) that are key to the experience of hunger, appetite, and satiety. Poor sleep tends to decrease leptin (satiety hormone) production and increase grehlin (hunger hormone) production. It also seems to increase sensitivity to pain. If you have sleep apnea or another type of sleep disorder, or even subclinical sleep disturbance, it’s likely that your physical hunger is increased and your sense of satiety is decreased. The adjustable gastric band can intervene on your behalf, but it doesn’t correct the hormone production problem.
Neuroendocrine dysfunction – the nervous system (neuro) and endocrine system (glands) control all physiologic processes in the human body. The nervous system works by sending messages through nerves, as if it’s a hard-wired telephone system. Nervous control is electrochemical in nature and is rapid. The endocrine system sends messages by the secretion of hormones into the blood and extracellular fluids. Like a radio broadcast, it requires a receiver to get the message. To receive endocrine messages, a cell must bear a receptor (a receiver) for the hormone being sent in order to respond to it. If the cell doesn’t have a receptor, it doesn’t “hear” or react to the message.
Researchers studying neuroendocrine interactions discovered (among other things) that in fibromyalgia and obesity patients, certain cells have damaged or malfunctioning receptors for the leptin, the satiety hormone. It’s the one that tells your brain you’ve had enough to eat. So one of the reasons you rarely feel satisfied by a reasonable amount of food (or in my case, an infinite amount of food) may be that satiety messages are going astray because your cells’ in-boxes are locked or absent.
Dysregulated HPA is a factor contributing to both obesity and fibromyalgia. HPA stands for hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal, three glands (part of the endocrine system) that are crucial to healthy functioning of many bodily processes. The HPA axis is a grouping of responses to stress. When you experience stress (whether it’s physical, like an injury or illness, or mental, like a fight with your spouse), your body produces a biomarker (messenger cell) that stimulates your HPA axis. Your hypothalamus (in your brain) then sends a message to your pituitary gland (also in your brain), where it triggers the release of ACTH (adrenocorticotrophic hormone) into your bloodstream and causes the adrenal glands (on your kidneys) to release the stress hormones, particularly cortisol. Cortisol increases the availability of the body's fuel supply (carbohydrate, fat, and glucose), which is needed to respond to stress. However, prolonged elevation of cortisol levels can cause havoc: muscle breaks down, your body’s inflammatory response is compromised, and your immune system is suppressed. If you’ve ever taken a corticosteroids medication like Prednisone to treat an inflammatory problem (like an allergic reaction) or disease (like lupus), you’ve probably learned the hard that it can turn you into a bad-tempered eating machine.
Inflammation, as mentioned above, is another culprit in both chronic pain and obesity. A European study of showed that obese rats have chronic low-grade systemic inflammation that sensitizes them to pain. Immunological vulnerability is common to obese and chronic pain patients and contributes to pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and depression. All of those are factors that can prevent us from exercising and are associated with the neuroendocrine dysfunction described above.
Mitchondrial dysfunction may also play a role in both chronic pain and obesity. According to Karl Krantz, D.C., “mitochondria are the power house of the cell. If energy is not being produced, logically it can lead to or contribute to chronic fatigue and pain.” A Finnish study of identical twins (each pair including a normal weight and an obese twin) found that the fat cells of the obese twins contained fewer copies of the DNA that’s located in mitochondria. This DNA contains instructions for energy use by the cell. The lead researcher of the study says, “If one were to compare this cellular power plant with a car engine, it could be said that the engine of the fat individual is less efficient.” So it’s no wonder that obese people are not able to burn or use all the calories they consume. Some medical professionals believe that chemical toxins (such as the preservative sodium benzoate, used in many soft drinks) and biotoxins (such as mold) can damage the mitochondria, increase inflammation, and aggravate both obesity and chronic pain.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Your own brain may in overload now after working its way through all the biological business I’ve ineptly but earnestly tried to explain. Even if nothing else is clear, I hope you’ve grasped the message that the causes of and factors in obesity are extremely complicated and well beyond the means of any currently existing medical device or surgical procedure to cure. I also hope you can see that blaming yourself for your obesity doesn’t go very far in treating it. You are not in conscious control of your neuroendocrine system. But neither are you entirely helpless. You have, or will soon have, a bariatric tool that when carefully used, can bring your appetite under better control and increase your sense of satiety. You can learn as much as possible about the factors that can improve your overall health and counteract the misbehavior of your nerves, hormones, and immune system. For example, I know for a fact that regular exercise helps me manage not just my weight but my depression and pain. You may feel defeated by the very idea of that, but according to an article in the July-August 2011 issue of IDEA Fitness Journal, as little as 5 to 15 minutes of exercise a day can yield health benefits and also increase your self-control when it comes to food choices.
At the end of the day, I still suffer from obesity and fibromyalgia, both puzzling and difficult to treat, but I try not to think of myself as a victim of those diseases. I can curl up in a chair with a box of chocolates and weep about my situation, or I can go on learning about my medical conditions and experimenting with ways to improve my health and quality of life. The author of one of the obesity-fibromyalgia studies, Akiko Okifuji, recommends that patients adopt healthier lifestyles and take more positive attitudes toward symptom management. That may sound condescending, but as Dr. Krantz wryly pointed out, “every person in America would benefit from that approach.” I know that’s easier said than done, but I’m willing to try it…are you?

Dylanmiles23. Good job on your weight loss. Keep it up! Yes, the excess skin can be very bothersome however it can be removed. This is not to discount your feeling at all. Your fear is normal and valid. Have they said that you can't have the skin removal surgery? I encourage you to focus on the weight loss at this time. Fear can set you back. Trust me I know. Let me know if I can help ease your fear in some way. I'm here to encourage and support you the best I can.

To the general public, bariatric surgery may be a single procedure that ends as soon as you leave the clinic after surgery. Or, they may think of aftercare as periodic adjustments to make sure your surgery is “working.” As a weight loss surgery patient, you know that post-op care is crucial to your success. Most clinics have extensive mandatory programs to ensure your continued weight loss and pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.

Shared Roles of Surgery and Post-Op Care
Your care after bariatric surgery, or post-op care, is as important as the surgery itself. The surgery helps you eat less because you feel satisfied on a smaller volume of food, but it is up to you to follow a healthy diet. You can lose 100 pounds or more in the first year, but you may have more to go. The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to carefully follow the meal plan and exercise recommendations from your bariatric team. Consider these facts:
A lap band does 30 to 40 percent of the total work; this means that you, the patient, are responsible for the remaining 60 to 70 percent of your weight loss journey’s success.

Some banding or sleeve patients have procedures that do almost 100 percent of the work in the first year, and then the patient must adjust to continue that work.

This means that aftercare is vital to your success.
Components of Aftercare
These are typical components of aftercare. They are critical for your success so that you know what to do and stay motivated.
Dietitian appointments: You will take several weeks to work up from a liquid diet to pureed foods to your regular diet. The dietitian can work with you to provide meal plans and food choice ideas.
Recovery period: You need to ease gradually into your regular activities and an exercise program to prevent poor healing of your surgical wounds.
Surgeon follow-ups: Gastric bypass will require more follow-ups and blood tests than other forms of bariatric surgery, but these appointments are crucial for everyone. You want to be sure that you are healing properly and preventing nutritional deficiencies.
Support groups: These groups are mandatory for many clinics. You can attend weekly or monthly meetings initially, and some clinics ask you to attend annual follow-ups for the rest of your life. These groups keep you motivated and informed.

Adjustment Visits for the Lap Band
Adjustment visits. These visits are periodic checkups that can lead to adjustments to make you more successful. Three different adjustments are possible.
Your nutrition program: You may need to alter your calorie intake, frequency or volume of eating or type of foods that you choose to make sure that you are getting the nutrients you need.
Your state of mind: A session with a psychologist or another member of your bariatric team can help you get motivated if you’re feeling discouraged, or make you more confident if you’re feeling lost.
Your band. The Lap Band is the only weight loss surgery option that allows adjustment to improve the procedure’s efficiency. The band can be narrowed to make you feel full faster, or opened if you need to increase the volume of food you eat, such as what might happen if you get sick.

Aftercare versus Maintenance
Aftercare, or post-op care, is distinct from “maintenance.” “Maintenance implies that you have reached the end of a program, such as a diet program, and you are ready to go back to your old habits. “Aftercare” helps you continue the transition to a healthier lifestyle. People who think of you in maintenance might be waiting for you to regain the weight, as with another failed diet.
So what can you do to change the negative perception of aftercare? Being a good role model is always a good start; follow through with all of your appointments, eat well and exercise as recommended. You can be more verbal about your continued efforts, and spread the word online through social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. What other ideas do you have for changing negative terminology disapproving assessments of post-op care for bariatric surgery?

I have been reading a lot of your stories and they are great. Thank you. I was banded last Monday. So I am a new born.