KAATNS

So stinkin' proud of you CF!

Nice sneakers, Catfish, and we'll see you coming!
Don't be tempted to buy a second pair and put them on the shelf for later as apparently the plastics break down and foam hardens whether or not we're on them. Weird, huh? That's one of the reasons shoes from a running store, etc. are superior -- the discount houses have the older stock and the foam hardens up over time.
I don't run but even for walking, etc., good shoes are where it's at. I have orthotics that I got through a podiatrist, expensive prescription, etc., and then I have Sole inserts for other shoes. http://www.yoursole.com/us/mens/footbeds -- I have to say, these are just as good if not better than the custom orthotics. I've tried other brands (SuperFeet, and Orthoheel) but these Soles are really something. I got them at our local high-end running shoe store.
IT Band, I hear you. That can cause a world of problems so great to keep on those exercises, use rollers, hot tub jets -- whatever it takes to keep that area from seizing.
Have fun on your new shoes! I'm going for a walk at the lake this afternoon -- on top of my workout this morning. This is really my goal, to try to get in a secondary form of exercise each day and not just think to myself I have done it already.

I started "running" in July of 2013, after cycling almost exclusively for my exercise. I read and read from folks on this site and others " go to a running store and get the proper shoes", have an expert evaluate your stride/heel strike, etc and "get the proper shoes" for you! So what did I do, just the opposite.....went to a big name shoe store, and listened to the first salesperson who came by that said "oh, these are really popular shoes, lots of folks buy these to run in". They looked ok, felt ok in the store, the name on the side was very popular, and the reviews were good.....
For the first couple hundred miles, all was well. I then began to have knee pain that would NOT go away. It was on the outside of the knee, right knee to be specific. After some reading, I knew what I had was I.T. band pain. Found some stretching exercises that helped somewhat....AND finally went to a running store. Talked with a true expert in running. Multi-marathon runner OWNS the store. Told her my symptoms and she put me on the treadmill, evaluated my "stride", even video taped it. Then we talked and she suggested a different shoe. She warned me to break them ( or really my calf muscles ) slowly. This time I listened. I haven't had even the slightest bit of knee pain since. YMMV, but I think I've found the shoes for me. Newton Sir Isaac's http://www.zappos.com/newton-running-isaac-red-black?ef_id=UtbI6AAAAMkSao5Y:20140115174408:s

Happy Bandiversary and Congratulations! Wishing you much continued success.

go.......

Super job! Way to go!

Super job! Way to go!

Super job! Way to go!

This time a year ago, I was at the hospital waiting to go into surgery to get the lapband. What a mess I was that day. Full of doubt and fear....what was I doing to myself, and worse yet, what if I wasn't successful? I wasn't doing this to look better, I was doing it because I was heading towards losing the ability to walk. How scary is that?? I wasn't worried about walking in pain...I was worried that I wouldn't be able to walk at all.
I also loved to eat. Just loved it...and loved to eat as much as I could...which is why I was morbidly obese. My life was focused on food so I couldn't imagine what my life would be if food wasn't front and center. I ate out alot...it was both the food and the socializing that I was focused on. What if I couldn't eat out anymore? Would I lose my friends? Would I enjoy my life? Again...I worried about how this surgery would change my life...but not in a positive way, I was thinking totally in a negative way. So...I was not in a good place physically or emotionally on January 14th, 2013.
Well here it is...a full year later and from a physical perspective, I've lost over a hundred pounds, I've gone from a size 26 pant and 4X top to slacks in size 12 and tops in mostly medium and large. Avenue and other plus size stores/departments are in my rearview mirror. I'd forgotten how much nicer smaller clothes are and how much fun it is to clothes shop again. It's a new mindset...not 'does it fit?' but 'how does it look?' Most important though is that I lost enough weight to have the hip replacement surgery I needed so badly. I'm still healing but already I have made leaps and bounds in terms of my mobility. I can walk up and down stairs again...I joined the Y last March and am a regular there. I swim again, and now can ride a bike. I couldn't do either a year ago. I ride the subways again, I don't fear walking more than a block or two, I found that eating out is still something I can do and look forward to even though I don't overeat. Or should I say, especially because I don't overeat. I've learned that a little bit of good food is just as enjoyable, if not better than eating too much of it.
Now..that doesn't mean it's all been a bed of roses...that's not realistic. I've had other health issues that have me concerned though I know I'm still better off smaller than larger in terms of tackling those issues. I also have body image issues that I'm working with a therapist to deal with. I've got alot of loose skin and I often don't recognize the old woman I see staring at me in the mirror. I realize it's my perception that's off, not anyone else's. All I get are compliments...I just don't believe them. So this too is an ongoing journey...and one most of us can relate to in that we didn't see ourselves as fat when we were, so why see ourselves as normal when we are?
All I can say is that this surgery saved my life...I truly believe it. I'm not suddenly living a perfect life...no one does. I'm simply living my life in a healthier way and seeing me get back what obesity took away. To all of you on this forum I say thank you. Without it, and the people on it, I don't know that I would have been this successful. The support and encouragement has been invaluable to me from the first day I found this site right up to today and I am grateful to you all.
Oh...and I've attached a before and after pic though I'm still on my journey. Just wanted to give you an idea of what 100 lbs. less looks like.
 

Um, all fat girls have pretty faces.

1. After band surgery can you drink or at least sip c/f pop?
my dr advised me no carbonation...though i read some do..i choose to follow my dr's instructios
2. Sugar is COMPLETELY out of the question? How far does one go keeping sugar out of one's diet?
sugar is is a lot of things..but i try to not intake as much as i can
3. How do you handle the extreme flip flop of your relationship with food?
all i did was eat high calorie, high processed, greasy, salt foods...once i detoxed on my pre op liquid diet,
i realized how hirrible ingesting that garbage made me feel and want made me super morbid obese
4. Can you eat things, again, wayyyy out that a Bander can't do?
i am 19 months post op with lap band and plication and i can eat whatever i want...i chew a lot, go slow
and just eat very different things now mainly because i want to
5 How do you do it?! You're all so brave.
i was having trouble wiping my butt and i was as wide as i am tall........i HAD to
hope i answered as you requested ok

Mine is Audry. Named after the man eating plant in the musical "Little shop of Horrors." Now, this is not to say that my band is a horror, anything but. The plant had one line "Feed me!" When I am hungry it is Audry saying "feed me." Then after 3 oz of food she says "thank you, I have had enough"and if I don't listen and try to eat some more she will say, "stop feeding me or something's going to get stuck!"

My bands name is Tony, like the tiger, because sometimes I swear there is a tiger in there making lots of growling noises, that and 'it's grrrrreeeaaattt'

So I was out shopping with my husband and he pulled me into New York and Company. This used to be my favorite store until I couldnt fit into their clothes anymore. The largest size they have in the store (in jeans) is an 18. I started at a size 20 in plus size jeans. He took the 18, and sent me into the dressing room. I gave myself a pep-talk....this isn't a plus size store. The 18s might be tight but that's ok. If you went into Lane Bryant they would probably be a little loose. You'll get there. So I pulled them up, suprisingly easily, and smiled when I realized they were too big. I asked him to get me a 16. He came back. They fit pretty good. He said, "just for the hell of it, let's try a 14....if you keep losing weight they will fit in no time". So I did. AND THEY FIT!!!!! I lost it. Cried like a baby right in the dressing room. I still can't believe it. I am wearing a size 14 jean from a regular, non-plus-sized store and I can breathe at the same time! I'm really doing this. I can do this! WE CAN DO THIS!!!!

Everyone of us has had that fear of failure.. After multiple attempts to lose weight and admitting defeat each time you become afraid to believe you can be successful... however, I do not regret my decision to have lapband... the first few weeks post op you think "why in the world did I do this?" but after you start feeling better and start eating some real food you realize how good you feel and will be thrilled everytime you reach a new goal... I have lost 55 lbs and have never felt better.. I am sure you will do great...

Cutlass, all above mentions are true. Having said that, I hear the fear of failure in your question, and I have to say: I was so scared that I would not be successful at this that I told only my husband and one close friend that I was having the band placed. I felt it was very possible that I would be the only person who did not lose 1 pound after surgery.
I'm basically at goal (a few pounds to go), and I have loved this journey. Simply because it is NOT another diet. You will understand after surgery, and it wish you all the success in the world! You can do it!

any WLS will have successes and failures
due to patient compliance or possible other complications
for best results with any WLS, if we do as our dr advises (and nutritionists)
the results can be whatever the person wants.........and if a person stops giving a damn, not changing
what they eat or exercising, they end up bitter and pissing and moaning about it didnt work..
any WLS can and does work
and any WLS can also not work..

Can someone please explain to me the weird names women use to refer to their breasts???

Haven't posted in a while but just wanted to share. I am almost 10 months post op and down 55 pounds. While there are days I hate this band (like now as I'm trying to eat chicken breast) the positives definitely outweigh the negatives!

The thing about torrid love affairs is they never end with a clean break. Sure, you have every reason to think it’s over. You changed your phone number, attended a weekly support group, burned every picture of the two of you together and started dating a healthier, saner person - one your friends actually like. But passionate romances don’t die until the second or third bullet. There’s always at least one steamy reconciliation before the thing is finally stone cold dead.


You’ll run into your ex at the store and go a little weak at the knees, or you’ll send a gushing e-mail on a lonely Friday night, or you’ll decide that avoidance is childish and the grownup thing to do is at least be friends. Before you know it, you’re right back where you were, and after the initial exhilaration dies you realize your mistake. Nothing’s really changed and you’ve wasted time and emotion yet again on someone who isn’t and never will be good for you.
An unhealthy relationship with food is eerily similar.
You may be stunned to learn that you’re so in love with the simple act of eating. One of the most common things bariatric surgeons hear on follow-up visits is, “I never realized what a relationship I had with food”. You thought your weight problem was from ignorance over what to eat, or faulty childhood messaging, or not making time to care for yourself, or your grandmother’s genes. That may be where it started, but that’s not what kept it going.
After surgery, you figure out the truth. You’ve been embedded in a romance as sticky and hard to leave as Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s on-again-off-again love affair.
Just like lovers in a doomed romance, you’ll be tempted to drift back into your old relationship with food. And it’ll sneak up on you when you’re most vulnerable, right when you think you’ve got the whole thing whipped.
Here’s what happens. Your surgery gave you a massive head start. It forced you to change your eating habits, it did away with your hunger pangs and allowed you to drop weight at breathtaking speed. You got positive reinforcement from the immediate success of your new behavior and from the fact that you just flat out felt better. Every week contains a little drama in the form of unaccustomed praise, changed relationships, different activities, and new clothes.
But the excitement will wane. Life will settle down, just like someone who’s had a thrilling engagement with lots of gifts, a fabulous wedding, an extended honeymoon, and the first couple of scary post-marriage fights and rapturous make-up sessions, but now has to get used to day-to-day married life with the spouse who leaves a trail of potato chips in his wake and the mother-in-law who calls three times a day. In other words, life will become normal, and, at times, even mundane.
Even more sobering, your body will adapt over time. You’ll be able to undo the straitjacket put on your system by the surgery.
For those who had a gastric bypass or vertical sleeve operation, two things come into play that will test your resolve. First, you’ll get hungry again. Even though the surgery bypassed ghrelin, the hunger hormone, other hormones will ramp up to fill the void, and most patients will start feeling hungry again, anywhere from six to twenty-four months after the surgery.
Second, your new stomach will adjust and toughen up, just like babies’ feet callous as they learn to walk. It will expand a bit, and its cells will change to create more and thicker mucus which cushions the food you ingest, making it easier to eat bigger quantities and varieties of food.
If you had the gastric bypass surgery, a third issue will come into play. The dumping syndrome that’s kept you from eating sugar will disappear in most patients. So the piece of cake that would have made you violently ill six months ago won’t cause a problem now.
For lap band patients, two issues can lure you back into your old lifestyle. First, you’ve figured out how to cheat, and you’re familiar enough with the band that you’re no longer worried about hurting yourself if you thwart its restriction. You can drink high calorie milk shakes or put your favorite food in a blender and eat as much as you want.
Second, you rely on the lap band to limit your food intake like a surgical shock collar rather than taking control of your own behavior, creating a negative reinforcement method of diet control that starts to grate on you. You have your surgeon decrease the saline in your lap band for special occasions, like Thanksgiving, and then put in enough saline “to make me throw up” when you want to lose more weight instead of taking the steering wheel and driving your own eating and exercise plan. Over time, you’ll begin to resent the choke hold the band has over your body and you’ll grow tired of the twice-monthly maintenance visits to your doctor.
That’s why the first six months after your operation should be treated like a sprint, wringing every benefit you can from the surgery while you’ve got all its mechanical and behavioral benefits going for you – the compliments, the falling scale numbers, the lack of appetite, and the physical inability to eat too much. This time won’t last forever, and those six months will be the best shot most people ever get at losing their excess weight.
You’ll learn to listen to your body to tell you when you need food. You’ll figure out what it feels like when your glucose is low, which means you need energy and should put some fuel in your tank. You’ll be able to tell the difference between real hunger versus head hunger, between needing energy and just mindlessly following an eating habit, between desiring food versus needing food.
There is no finish line. There is no moment when you can say, okay, I’ve won that battle and I can forget about it. Like a recovering alcoholic has to pay attention to what he drinks for the rest of his life, you’ve got to be vigilant about diet and exercise for the rest of yours.
But, you say, that sounds depressing. Surely life wasn’t meant to be quite so restrictive. That’s just too hard.
Actually, it’s not. It’s just conducting yourself in a fashion that’s consistent with your goals, something you’ve been doing your entire life with your job, your marriage, your family, and your friends.
Think about it.
The things you’re proudest of in life are the things that have required the greatest work and sacrifice - your education, your children, your marriage, your career. Maintaining a healthy weight is no different and it’s something you should pat yourself on the back every day for doing.
You’ve tasted what life is like without the suffocating excess weight. Your new habits are far less restrictive than the physical, social and emotional limitations your old weight burdened you with.
It’s time to kick your dysfunctional romance with food out of your life forever.

I have no doubt you will accomplish all of your goals and then some!

((HUGS)) to you! Wishing you peace and calm in your life.

Take a walk or run- nothing makes me feel better especially when I'm stressed.

Take a walk or run- nothing makes me feel better especially when I'm stressed.

((HUGS)) to you! Wishing you peace and calm in your life.