parisshel

Great thread. "How you do one thing is how you do everything."

Haven't seen the commercials, but I have to wonder how ingesting fake, soy-packed products translates to "the right way."

THIS! The best proof of the Medifast fail is reading any Medifast blog. There's not one out there where the Medifaster kept the weight off longterm. In fact, several Medifast bloggers deregulated their metabolisms definitively by following this plan.

I didn't cut my hair but a month after I was banded, I did semi-permanent makeup for my eyebrows, which had lost a lot of their "pop" with age. Best beauty thing I've ever done. I love my eyebrows now, and I never have to fill them in. I look like I'm wearing makeup even when I'm not. I find I take much better care of my exterior self now that I'm banded. When I was so fat, I just figured it wasn't worth it...why bother. And now I'm all about the hair and makeup, creams and lotions. I'm a marketer's dream, unfortunately.

i cannot eat shrimp at all. Tried it several times, at different meals, and this is one of my foods that just will never be band friendly. Oh well. I can live without shrimp.

Thanks, Bandista, for this link. I've never heard of this technique, but the reviews of the book on Amazon were quite impressive and laudatory. I put in my order! I knew that the old advice to just stay flat and inactive for the first days was no longer recommended, and in fact, walking around makes my back feel better, at least temporarily. Thanks for the nice words, everyone! Love you all!

I've been a bit down because my loss has slowed due to inactivity. Last month I sustained a stress fracture which had me on crutches for three weeks and, just as that was getting better, I slipped a disk in my back. Oh the pain! Even getting from the bed to the living room is more of a shuffle than a walk. But! These pics make me happy. And I know once my disk slides back into place, I'll be back to pushing my FitBit to the sky. Keep moving, everyone!

Happy bandiversary and a huge thank you for being such an active, sane and frank-talking participant on this platform. Add to to the long list of other grateful bandsters who rely on you for clear and honest posts. Here's to you and a long, healthy banded life!

Hee hee...hog it up all you want! Everybody deserves bragging rights! OK here's my most recent: Earlier this week I went to a restaurant I hadn't been to since my surgery, and I noticed how absolutely comfortable I was not only squeezing between all the tightly-pushed together tables to get to our seats, but just in general during the entire (long) meal. I remember the last time I was there (I was at my highest weight), and how I was just too big to sit comfortably...shifting on the small hard chair during the whole meal...couldn't wait to get up and out of there. And of course, when I was that large, making my way between the tables meant fellow dinners had to hang on to their wine glasses so my big old coat didn't knock them over! I never take this for granted--this getting-smaller-body--and hope I never will. I remember how dreadful I felt moving through the world at 260+ pounds, and how much space I took up.

Well done! You've really lost in/toned up your hip region, which, after having kids, is no small feat! Lovely and thanks for the motivational pics.

Well, if you are gon be hungry, it's better to be at work where you can't eat! My Memorable Pre-Op moment was the idiot guy pushing my gurney down to the OR. "What surgery are you getting?" he asked me. "The Lapband," I replied. "What a mistake. You'll fail. Shoulda got a bypass. Bypass is the only one that works." he says. Of course I reported him both to the surgeon and the hospital, not that they'd do anything with this information.

Do you typically retain Water after a flight? Are your ankles swollen for days after flying? Maybe you do retain water and maybe your stuck episode is related to that but 2 days later? That sounds odd, given that any swelling that was flight related would have gone down by then. I fly longhaul flights frequently. I also have 6.0 in a 10cc band. My flights average 12-14 hours and I never feel any effects on my band from the flight. I walk the plane at least once an hour so I keep my blood circulating and I drink loads of water in flight. Maybe that makes a difference? (I also pack my own food for the airports and the flight. I never trust an airline to serve band-friendly food.) Sorry you got stuck.

Everyone has said such great things on this thread. All so true! The other day I was talking about my lapband to someone who asked me why I just didn't eat smaller amounts...like I do with the lapband...without the surgery? And I told him that it just wasn't realistic for me to do so, because of the HUNGER. I think this is WLS's strongest line of defense. When you dim the appetite, you greatly reduce the chances of food abuse. (Let's set aside eating for reasons other than appetite in this discussion.) I was a volume eater, not an emotional one, so the lapband has helped me in ways a traditional diet never could longterm. Everything you are feeling right now as a pre-op most of us have felt. I did a lot of blog writing up to the date of my surgery, and one of the posts I wrote talks about how I refused to give in to my urge to do Weight Watchers "just one more time." I'd done WW a billion times, with always the same (failing) endgame. So to delay my surgery to see if I could go the non-surgical route "just one more time?" So glad I didn't chicken out. I'm already regretting I didn't do WLS earlier...I can only imagine if I had delayed this a year more or so...yikes. I'd surely be fatter than ever right now, instead of down 53 pounds since last March. (I'm a slow loser compared with many on here but I'm fine with that.)

Thanks, Alex. I should have checked the html code; I would have been able to "see" the additional lines.

Sending many wishes for a smooth operation and speedy recovery. If I were getting this done, I'd have my band emptied just so I wouldn't have any issue with postop meds. I wouldn't want to be worried about getting those stuck. I'd then return and get my band refilled once I was off the meds.

Has anyone else had issues editing their signature? Ever since the site migrated to this new platform, I am unable to save the edits I make to mine. The update/change doesn't hold, despite me following the correct procedure (I don't write over 15 lines of text and I don't return to previous page from the saved changes.) I've submitted a ticket to ask why this is happening but never received an answer from the IT folks. Is this a site-specific problem, or am I just not understanding something?

I'd wait this out...the fill may not have settled in yet. Post-fill I'm always quite restricted and I can never assess the true nature of a fill for a couple of weeks. I had been at 6.5 with my last fill and it was def. too tight. (I could not have eaten what you just described eating.) I waited two weeks and it still did not allow me to eat most solids, so I got .5 taken out. 6.0 is my sweet spot right now; I've got good, lasting fullness on the right amount of Protein and vegetables.

I think you could meet your Protein needs following WW, certainly. And because their plan is so flexible, you could certainly use it and still adhere to bandrules. If I were to go back to WW today, I'd just eliminate all the white carbs from the plan (the breads, rice, Pasta, grains, popcorn etc) since I don't eat those foods, and base my days around protein, veg, good fats and fruit. That would be lapband-compliant for my way of eating.

My mother did this to me, too! I did lose weight, that's for sure. Came right back on once I stopped. I remember the bruises on my hips that those shots gave me.

I would consult with a doctor for an answer to this question. Of course there are alternatives to low-dose aspirin. Many people are on daily blood-thinners. You'll need to find one that is compatible with a lapband so do mention this to the person with whom you consult.

I haven't had bread or steak (and a number of other things) since being banded 10 months ago. Certainly immediately post-banding these would be problematic for all...but could, I suspect, be part of one's choices eventually. I see lots of people on this platform that work in steak and breads and Pasta into their eating plans. My band doesn't tolerate these, and I don't even want to see if this has now changed, because I know (for bread, at least) that carbs trigger overeating for me. So I just stay away. The band makes it a whole lot easier to avoid these.

You know, tmf, this is my post-op directive for life. My prescribed way of eating is what they call "fractioned" and it consists of 6 small meals spread out over the day. I have mandatory (per my surgeon's nutritionist) Snacks that must be eaten between all meals, and after dinner. Of course "snack" does not mean cupcakes (alas). It is exactly what you are eating: a small fruit, or yogurt or small bit of cheese or Protein. When I went in to ask for my last fill, my surgeon told me that I could get the fill, but he preferred that I remain compliant with the "fractioned" way of eating (which I wasn't doing, admittedly...I just have a hard time scheduling in those snacks). He said that if I respected the small snacks, I would find it would help me stay out of the hunger zone. And he doesn't want me to come to the table starving, because it is then that I set myself up for eating too fast/too big of bites and experience discomfort. So just know that you are practicing a legitimate post-band way of eating, at least for us here across the pond.

I remember this feeling so well. The first little glass of Water they gave me the evening after my morning surgery I just sipped...took me an hour to drink 4 oz. You'll gain confidence as you move through the food stages. But feeling fearful is completely normal, don't worry. Now, 10 months post-op, I never even pace my water drinking...although if I guzzle, my band lets me know about it! But I'm a long way away from taking an hour to drink 4 oz, for sure.

Boy, this is one of those tough decisions. I can relate to what you are describing. Thing is, when I am overfilled I can't get in the solids I need to even hit the "not hungry two hours later" mark. This is where the tweaking begins, right? It's such alchemy between choosing the band-compliant foods (the ones that promote fullness) and having the correct level of saline. And both can vary according to the hour! Still learning my band. This morning I learned not to eat a scrambled egg in the morning, whereas eggs are fine at noon or dinner. ::burp::

TSA will only stop liquids. You can bring in as much snacky stuff as you like (protein bars, nuts, whole fruits, etc). I even travel with protein shake powder; no problem with the "authorities."