titansjim

Thanks everybody. I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing plus start on some weight lifting. 80 down 50 to go! Good luck to all of you

Lifting could conceivably slow down your weight loss, but not your fat loss. If you lift long enough you will replace fat with muscle as long as you continue your good diet practices.

Weight training is very good for weight loss , the more lean muscle you have the more fat you burn

3 months post op and right now I'm avg 4 pounds lost a week! I've only had 1 fill. I'm keeping my portions small as I can & choosing the right food with no cheating. (Except a little at Xmas). Walking on treadmill twice a day. Lost over 60 lbs including preop diet! People think the band deserves all the credit, like if you get the band you're automatically gonna lose weight. It's give me the help I needed to do this but I'm working hard & making good food choices. I'm thankful for the band but giving myself some credit for my hard work & sacrifice.

3 months post op and right now I'm avg 4 pounds lost a week! I've only had 1 fill. I'm keeping my portions small as I can & choosing the right food with no cheating. (Except a little at Xmas). Walking on treadmill twice a day. Lost over 60 lbs including preop diet! People think the band deserves all the credit, like if you get the band you're automatically gonna lose weight. It's give me the help I needed to do this but I'm working hard & making good food choices. I'm thankful for the band but giving myself some credit for my hard work & sacrifice.

3 months post op and right now I'm avg 4 pounds lost a week! I've only had 1 fill. I'm keeping my portions small as I can & choosing the right food with no cheating. (Except a little at Xmas). Walking on treadmill twice a day. Lost over 60 lbs including preop diet! People think the band deserves all the credit, like if you get the band you're automatically gonna lose weight. It's give me the help I needed to do this but I'm working hard & making good food choices. I'm thankful for the band but giving myself some credit for my hard work & sacrifice.

3 months post op and right now I'm avg 4 pounds lost a week! I've only had 1 fill. I'm keeping my portions small as I can & choosing the right food with no cheating. (Except a little at Xmas). Walking on treadmill twice a day. Lost over 60 lbs including preop diet! People think the band deserves all the credit, like if you get the band you're automatically gonna lose weight. It's give me the help I needed to do this but I'm working hard & making good food choices. I'm thankful for the band but giving myself some credit for my hard work & sacrifice.

3 months post op and right now I'm avg 4 pounds lost a week! I've only had 1 fill. I'm keeping my portions small as I can & choosing the right food with no cheating. (Except a little at Xmas). Walking on treadmill twice a day. Lost over 60 lbs including preop diet! People think the band deserves all the credit, like if you get the band you're automatically gonna lose weight. It's give me the help I needed to do this but I'm working hard & making good food choices. I'm thankful for the band but giving myself some credit for my hard work & sacrifice.

3 months post op and right now I'm avg 4 pounds lost a week! I've only had 1 fill. I'm keeping my portions small as I can & choosing the right food with no cheating. (Except a little at Xmas). Walking on treadmill twice a day. Lost over 60 lbs including preop diet! People think the band deserves all the credit, like if you get the band you're automatically gonna lose weight. It's give me the help I needed to do this but I'm working hard & making good food choices. I'm thankful for the band but giving myself some credit for my hard work & sacrifice.

3 months post op and right now I'm avg 4 pounds lost a week! I've only had 1 fill. I'm keeping my portions small as I can & choosing the right food with no cheating. (Except a little at Xmas). Walking on treadmill twice a day. Lost over 60 lbs including preop diet! People think the band deserves all the credit, like if you get the band you're automatically gonna lose weight. It's give me the help I needed to do this but I'm working hard & making good food choices. I'm thankful for the band but giving myself some credit for my hard work & sacrifice.

3 months post op and right now I'm avg 4 pounds lost a week! I've only had 1 fill. I'm keeping my portions small as I can & choosing the right food with no cheating. (Except a little at Xmas). Walking on treadmill twice a day. Lost over 60 lbs including preop diet! People think the band deserves all the credit, like if you get the band you're automatically gonna lose weight. It's give me the help I needed to do this but I'm working hard & making good food choices. I'm thankful for the band but giving myself some credit for my hard work & sacrifice.

Personally, I eat out often also. I can still eat anything I want just MUCH less of it. I thought in the beginning (about 3 yrs ago) that whoever I was with would notice how little I was eating, but no one ever said anything about it (cept my sister who still finds it hard to believe that I can eat about 5 bites of a sandwich). I started dating about a year after surgery (I was down about 60 lbs by then) and not one guy ever asked me why I wasn't eating very much. I think we think that whatever we're doing is so important to everyone else, when it really isn't! LOL. I don't think anyone will even notice if you eat very little of your meal.
Now, what you should eat at a restaurant? I'm not a big fan of Indian food, but I would think anything on the menu would be fine as long as you eat it very slowly and ALWAYS take home a box. Every single time I go out to eat, it's like 2-4 meals. I still eat bread, Pasta, rice, and sweets. Just very little of them. Some people can't tolerate these things. You have to experiment yourself to see how you tolerate certain things. Proceed slowly. Your band is now the boss and will tell you if what you're eating is wrong for you and how much you should eat.
Good luck!
Marci

Good news. I didn't get a fill before coming to North Dakota but they have a good variety of food at the man camp I'm in like baked chicken & salad bar plus they even have a gym here so I'll have no excuses. I'm staying on my "diet" & exercising so I should be alright. (-:

Dang it. I've been wanting to ask but embarrassed, lol. What is an NSV?

well cat spit......getting mad at yourself now wont solve nothing...whats done is done. i think WTF was i doing at 336 pounds??...but i got the band to help me and here i sit.......down 88 some pounds...
focus on here and now and the future.
the past is gone and never to return.
i dont care how many times i watch the christmas carol...
ps-i lost that much and still have that much to go..so i understand your thinking

Are you going to drink flat beer?? Drinking carbonation is risky at any stage but especially early on. Try some wine or maybe a vodka, Water and cranberry..I know it's not manly but you could ri se out an old beer bottle.....and use it....
Have fun... Remember it's not all about eating and drinking . Is about the fun and friends...

I don't' miss the beer or diet pop at all... I started with a 54" waist... now 32"... I sooner have a smaller waist than a beer !
Tom, Toronto
Banded July 6 06
Wt. Loss: 156 lbs

Thanks everybody. I guess I just hadn't thought about never having another beer. A small sacrifice for my goals.

Yeah... I'd do vodka and cranberry or OJ... although my doctor says carbonation is ok every once ina while, it still freaks me out.
I loooove to drink socially, and I will either do wine or vodka. Have Fun with ur guys!!!!

Hello all, tommorrow December 13th is my 1 year anniversary ! If you had told me a year ago i would be this happy with my body i wouldnt of believed you . My surgery and recovery was a breeze, i follow the Dr. s food rules 95% of the time, swim 3x a week and walk when i can. I was 5'3 weighing 225 lbs, tired ,out of of shape, wearing a frumpy size 18 old lady clothes. Now i weigh 163 with a goal of 140. i have lots more energy, feel great and my sleep apnea is gone ! I wear attractive size 14 clothes,get nice compliments and like what i see in the mirror. This was by far a good decision, so if you have any doubts, just imagine how good you'll look and feel in a year ! THANKYOU to all who posted in the last year, i learned alot ! Best of luck !!!

I'm trying to change my whole thinking process on food. They say " have you ever seen a fat wolf or a fat lion?" These animals eat for nutrition and survival. I'm hoping I can be a tiger and start thinking of food as a simple fuel I need to survive. It's hard and I'm not there yet but I'm trying. I guess 40 years of bad habits ain't gonna disappear overnight.

I'm trying to change my whole thinking process on food. They say " have you ever seen a fat wolf or a fat lion?" These animals eat for nutrition and survival. I'm hoping I can be a tiger and start thinking of food as a simple fuel I need to survive. It's hard and I'm not there yet but I'm trying. I guess 40 years of bad habits ain't gonna disappear overnight.

Very interesting day today. Traveled 4 hours (one way) with my wife and I because it was the closest person who can do my aftercare. Was banded in Mexico.
Here were the details:
1) Very surprised that .4 of a cc was actually in the band. The Nurse Practitioner said that is not surprising because they do test and put saline in the band to make sure its working and sometimes they don't get it all out. Dr. Kuri told us he was going to put no fill in the band at the time of surgery so needless to say this was a surprise for me personally.
2) She put a total of 1.4 cc's in the band total (including putting back the original .4 cc that was there at the time of surgery). My band has 4cc capacity as a whole. So as of now, my band is 35% full (yaaaah)
3) Very strange as she was putting the saline in, she told me to sit up and drink some Water as she was putting the saline in. She was testing if I can handle the increased pressure of the band once she started putting the saline in. Some people can handle it and some can't. I asked her why she asked me if I can handle it and she said: some people start sweating and get dizzy because of the increased pressure the band puts on the Vagus Nerve. I told her no...and I was fine. A strange question she asked me was: Do you feel less hungry as I'm pushing the saline in your band? I'm thinking....I wasn't hungry when I came in...so how can I feel less hungry as the she is putting in the saline. Just a strange question but maybe the band has this effect on some.
4) There were 5 total girls in the room with my belly and scars exposed to them all (while the she was injecting the saline in the port). Apparently, she was doing some training with the local girls at the Junior College who were in the Nursing Program. Although uncomfortable intially, I had fun with it and said: I didn't think today that I would drive 4 hours one way to eventually be in a room with 5 pretty girls looking at my belly (lol....they all laughed hard )
5) Lastly, on the 4 hour drive home, I started to get dizzy and lightheaded. My wife being a nurse said the following: "I think your brain is finally feeling the effects of the band being tightened which has put a little more pressure on the Vagus Nerve. Without going through the Nursing Lingo...apparently, your blood pressure changes as well as your breathing which causes you to get a little dizzy or light headed when the Vagus Nerve has pressure on it.
In closing, I'm so happy I got my first fill. Looking forward to working with this tool and making some adjustments to my lifestyle. One thing I have to do is discipline myself with Protein in the morning and not to exorcize late at night (8pm-10pm) because then I get hungry late and stay up late.
Cheers to everyone on this Journey !! Thank you for everyone on this board (including my help mate, best friend and the love of my life) for helping me make this journey all possible

I'm at 7.8 in my 14cc band, it took about six to eight fills to get there ( don't remember exactly but mine were all teeny fills. As I loose more and more I drop out of the greenzone and I get a small top up to get me back there.
Until you get to the point where your band is helping you, no amount of Protein, drinking, etc is going to make you less hungry. You will be hungry a short time after your meals and going insane till your next meal. It's all will power now. As others have suggested keep busy busy busy, if you're at home all day get out of the house, find distractions.
It's going to be a rough ride till you get your band tweaked and when you do it will be like FINALLY!!!
Hang in there it's worth it.