KAATNS

You are all so great!! I am thrilled I'm down 23lbs but I've been pretty consistent with weight loss so far so I'm bummed it stopped this week! I'm aware that this stage is for waking- that's why I'm on soft foods still. I'm sure I will catch up just like everyone including my NUT told me. Just had to vent this morning!
<3

I had my band (Realize, 11 cc) implanted on February 1, 2012, so a little over a year ago, which seems a bit surreal, but today I had the most exciting appointment since my initial consultation. No, it wasn't because I reached my goal (oh, I wish!!!), but because it made me excited about my band again.
I had a remarkably easy surgical experience. Maybe too easy. I was home barely five hours after surgery with nothing to report but that pesky shoulder pain. My surgery was on Wednesday, and I was back at work by Monday. Since the completion of my initial healing, I've never had any negative symptoms from having the band. In fact, there have been days when I have, unfortunately, wondered if the doctor told the truth about putting the darned thing in. To say I haven't reached my sweet spot is an understatement.
For the first 6 months, I was careful, followed my surgeon's and nutritionist's guidelines, and lost about 25 lbs. Hardly a miracle, but I was happy. To me, that was real, noticeable progress, and I was fine with a slow rate of loss. I wanted to hit my sweet spot, but my surgeon was filling me slowly, and i still wasn't feeling restriction. Then I hit month 7. And month 8. I went up to 8 ccs in my band. The loss slowed to a crawl and stopped altogether. I got discouraged. I got angry. Most of all, I got hungry. So, I ate. I stopped stopping when my plate was empty and started looking to feel full. I started to regain weight. And I went through a period where (as a self-pay patient) I just couldn't find a way to spend the money required for a follow up and fill appointment with my surgeon. I regained more of what I'd lost. It kind of sucked.
Then, just after the new year, I got a notice from my doctor's office that the surgeon who had installed my band and done my follow up had left the practice, and I would need to transfer my case to one of his colleagues. I also got a handle on my finances, so I called and made my first appointment in 6 months. That appointment was this morning.
I LOVE my new doctor, for a lot of reasons. She wasn't easy on me; she made me take responsibility for my lack of progress and my regain, but she understood my frustration. She agreed that the band couldn't be expected to really do its job if I wasn't experiencing any restriction. She first checked to be sure my fill really was at 8 ccs, and it was. I had no leaks to blame. While it is unusual for a patient to not experience any restriction at that level, she reassured me that it wasn't unheard of. I wasn't the only person to ever be in this position. She proposed a new plan for my band experience and she made me happy and hopeful and optimistic again, the way I felt when I first got my band. I'm in love.
Today, I got an extra 1 cc in my band, bringing me to 9 cc total. I'm on liquids for at least the rest of the day and probably tomorrow as well, but I feel entirely different MENTALLY and I really believe that's the most important thing for me right now. My new doctor also made my next appointment for me before I even left the exam room--for 2 weeks from today. She agreed that getting me to my sweet spot is hugely important and that if I have to go in every two weeks, or even every week, until we get the fit of my band exactly right, then that is what we will do. WE will work together and WE WILL get this band to work. End of story.
Today, I feel marvelous. My new doctor is even better than my old one (who I was never unhappy with) and she said exactly the things that I needed to hear to get me back on this journey. She reminded me that I CAN be successful, but that my lack of success so far is not ALL my fault (for someone who has failed at every diet known to man or god before this, hearing this is HUGE). I am not blameless, and I know where I've gone wrong, but I can't be expected to succeed with the band until the band goes to work, and having the doctor acknowledge that and take steps to fix the problem means more to me than I can say.
Today, I am starting over, and today I am ecstatic. Today is the next first step to becoming a successful bandster.
Go me!

I had my surgery 10 months ago and I'm down 90 pounds!!!!! I really wanna lose 100 in a year.... I'm starting an exercise program next week so that should help move things along faster too :) cuz I have not exercised AT ALL

Hi! You'll hear the "zones" referred to as:
Yellow = needing a fill.
Green = feeling satisfied after a band portion of food for a reasonable ( 3-4 hour ) amount of time.
Red = meaning your band is too tight.
It's a learning experience for each person. Your surgeon will discuss this, you'll probably see it all over the walls, on charts, in books, etc. Good Luck!

i am kinda on the short side......and 8 months ago, i was about as wide as tall..my stomach played a major part and stuck out alot....take a gander at my profile pic in green if you dont believe me..
anyhow, i noticed today while moving the wet clothes to the dryer that i could stand on my tippy toes and reach nearly all the way into the washer to get the clothes out...where as before, i couldnt reach more than half way and more than a few times had to get the ole man to help...now that was a wonderful moment for me and even teared up a bit at just how far i have come since june 6
now i know what your thinking, kinda silly
yeah i know but when you notice your stomach doesnt hinder you as it once did, its pretty big (pardon that expression)....(IE: seat belts, crossing my knee over my legs, seat in car, clothes) you get excited.
thought i'd share another silly success

Dude, she didn't call you anything.

Do you ever feel that you’ve eaten enough food? Do you even know how that feels?


RETRAINING MY OVEREATER’S BRAIN
Early and prolonged satiety (the sense of having eaten enough food for now) is the name of the band’s game, and restriction (the feelings that communicate satiety to a bandster) is a greatly misunderstood term. I talk a lot about what a bad idea it is to eat until your band’s alarms flash and bells clang, but let me step off my soapbox for a moment and tell you about my own satiety experiences.
When I was obese, I could never eat enough food. Aside from my love of its smell and taste, of chewing and swallowing, I wanted a full belly. The problem with that was that there isn’t enough food in the entire universe to fill the hole in my belly, never mind the hole in my soul. As a pre-op, I had the vague idea that my band would help me eat less, but I had no recent experience of eating small amounts and no idea of how that would feel. I blindly committed to weighing and measuring small portions of food despite the sense of deprivation that aroused in my overeater’s heart.
It wasn’t until perhaps six months post-op that I realized I wasn’t actually hungry after eating my measured meal. Often I wanted to eat more – because the food tasted so good, I’d looked forward to it so much, I deserved it even more, or because I was a good girl who always cleaned her plate. But none of that “head hunger” was related to an empty, hurting, grumbling tummy.
That was a shocking discovery for someone who had eaten to the point of Thanksgiving dinner Full every day, every meal, every snack, for over 20 years. I suppose that until I came to that realization, I had been doing as much (if not more) of my weight loss work as my band had been doing. It didn’t really matter, because by then, as I inched closer and closer to my goal weight, I was also realizing that my band and I would have to go on working together for the rest of my life. So whether lessons came to me early or late, they were all valuable.
Looking back now, I think my band and my conscious commitment to my dietitian’s food plan were both helping me to retrain my brain. No matter what you’re trying to do – lose weight, run a marathon, raise a child – survival and success depends a great deal on practice. Like a concert pianist playing scales, you have to practice over and over and over again in order to keep your skills sharp. To feel that I had regained some control over my eating with the help of my band, to no longer feel enslaved to food, was worth all the risk and trouble of weight loss surgery. So imagine my delight as time went on and my brain-band partnership got even stronger and better.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE SATIETY
Eventually I progressed to my next band lesson: learning to recognize satiety and stop eating as soon as I felt it, even if that meant leaving food on my plate. It was easy enough to weigh and measure my food when I was at home, but I needed more portable skills to take with me to social events and on business trips.
First, I’ll re-state a definition: when you’re satiated with food, you're no longer hungry and more food doesn't interest you. You’ve just had enough for now. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Satiety is registered by both conscious and unconscious processes, and the two may not always be in synchronization, especially in an obese person who's been overeating consistently.
It's entirely possible to be physically satisfied but mentally unsatisfied after a meal, for reasons that are unique to everybody and shared by some of us. Each brand and model of the adjustable gastric band is clearly defined in its specifications, executed in the manufacturing process, and policed by quality assurance technicians, but human beings are very unique, so we respond to the band in different ways.
So, how do you know when to stop eating? Do you eat until you're full? No, you don't. You have to figure out a new stopping point.
The overeater's definition of "full" is the normal eater's definition of "stuffed". Most of the time, the normal eater stops eating when they've had enough, not when they're full, but the control center in an overeater's brain doesn't get the "enough" message soon enough, or it exerts a powerful override, so the overeater keeps eating long after the normal person would have stopped. That person keeps on eating until all the food is gone, then goes looking for more. Also, overeaters often use food for emotional rather than physical nourishment. While there certainly is some psychic (non-physical) value in the experience of eating, food cannot fill you up emotionally. When you eat for reasons unrelated to physical nourishment, you will never experience “enough”.
For a bandster, satiety is not quite the same as being full, nor should it be. Full means your upper stomach has reached its maximum capacity. Satiety happens on your way to being full. With a properly adjusted band, you will be comfortable if you stop eating when you're satiated, but you experience discomfort if you eat until you're full.
The band gives almost instant feedback about your eating behavior. The feedback comes in the form of the Soft Stop and Hard Stop signals. In order to learn and recognize your own stop signals, you’ll need to slow down and pay very close attention to how your body feels when you eat. If you usually eat with a crowd (family, friends, coworkers), you might need to try eating by yourself so you won't be distracted. Stop signals can be subtle and they can come from unexpected parts of your body. It's better to heed a gentle reminder than wait for a hammer to hit you on the head.
Soft stops are your early warning system, gentle reminders from your body that it's time to stop eating. Because they don't hurt much, they're easy to ignore. Your job is to recognize them (even though they may vary by the meal or the day) and heed them every time you recognize them.
Hard stops are the equivalent of running into a brick wall. They can happen without any apparent warning, but usually you have sped heedlessly past a soft stop before you hit the wall. Hard stops are the painful and sometimes embarrassing reminders that you have eaten too much, too fast, in bites that were too big, without chewing enough.
To see lists of common soft and hard stop signals, click here:
http://jean-onthebandwagon.blogspot.com/2013/03/stop-eating-signals.html

I had the exact same thing with my last fill. I lasted 4 days then had to get 1cc removed. Now I feel no restriction whatsoever. I'm having a hard time finding the the right balance.
Hugs to you

i really pondered whether to post this or not
(i do not want to come across as bragging or boasting)
however i wanted to share as its pretty darn kewl.
this week alone, 5 people have said something to me about my weight loss (from out of the blue)...3 did not know i have had the surgery.
1. Jennifer who is our companys CFO, came up to me and said you are looking so good.
2. Darielle came up to me and said whatever you are doing, keep it going as you are looking (skinny)
3. Pat who is one of our accountants said you are looking amazing
4. Tiffany said i can really tell you are losing weight.
5. Dunkin Doughnut drive thru lady said wow, you have lost some weight
so i said the thank you and how sweet (and the southern thing well bless your heart)...i am excited that people notice or are noticing....still difficult to say (thank you) but i am getting use to it

Occassionally, I run across a few posts from people like me who have failed their bands. But these posts are usually just a venting opportunity. I have failed my band - I acknowledge it - and it would be great if we could have a group of other "failures" who want to work together to become success stories.
MY STORY
I was banded in March of 2007. At the time I was 299 lbs. I am a 6ft tall lady. Today, I weigh 255, and basically just as big as I was when I got my band. I have got numerous fills and I usually eat through my fiils. I can eat whatever I want. I overeat and I am confident that I have caused my stomach to expand. I snack on candy, I eat the wrong foods - I eat until I am STUFFED. Sometimes when I overeat, I feel sick and gag to relieve the pressure.
I moved to Houston 4 months ago, and last week, I went in for a port-readjustment with Dr Alanis. It went well and I now have a new resolve to make it work. My doctor mentioned to me that about 40% of all bandsters fail. I do not want to be a failure. I have paid too much money to go through this.
MY GOAL FOR DECEMBER

To write everything I eat down, including calories
To stay within 1500 Calories.
What's your story? What's your goal? How can I support you? How can we support each other?
Misery loves company, and company can help us move from failure to success. Please join me by telling me your story, and your GOAL for December. Let's vent - but more importantly, let's talk about strategies to make this work - let's share and support each other - Let's turn this from failure to success.
I REFUSE TO BE A FAILURE

Before

We of the WLS community transform out bodies but its in the the transformation of our minds that we attain the Freedom we are seeking. My sisters blog about her mental attitude before and after her first 5K (having lost 220lbs) ... Her perception of who she was impacted who she is today and what she thought she could/can do.
http://www.300poundsdown.com/2013/02/mission-possible-my-1st-5k.html
Have you struggled with such "old tapes" ? I know I have ...
Hope in Your Future is Power in Your Present!
Lee

Ashamed I let myself get up to 388 pounds at one point. Ashamed I didn't want to do things in public or have my picture taken. Ashamed I wasted 15 years of my life before I decided to do something about it. And I am not only ashamed but I am angry at myself for missed opportunities. I let life pass me by year after year and those missed chances are gone forever.
Does anyone else feel this way? Is it normal?

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Totally flirting!

Instead of mother-daughter lunch dates, we are going to have a mother- daughter fill date I have been banded for two years and three months, and after almost two years of struggling to be approved, my nineteen year old daughter was banded on Valentine's Day. She says it is the best Valentine's gift she will ever receive. I started at 244, and hit goal weight in nine months, then lost another 30 pounds by my one year bandiversary. After being told I looked too thin and ill, I gained 15 pounds and have retained my weight since then. I am able to do this without feeling like I'm missing out on anything, I eat what I want, just less of it, less often. I hope and pray my daughter has the same result as me. She has a bit more to lose, but I am positive she will get there! Good luck to all of you!!!

I could use some support, encouragement and compliments every now and then, but it just doesn't happen. I don't know what the future holds in my marriage, but at least I'll be healthy.

I manage a medical practice and I would want to know if any of our patients felt like they weren't being treated properly by the staff!

I read on a blog (OK; not the best or most reliable source) that 85% of couples split following a significant weight change in one partner. That can be weight up or down, btw. I can understand why a couple might split with a big weight gain in one of the people, because with big weight gain comes lack of mobility, socializing, community activities, etc. Then a downward spiral begins, as the normal-weight partner either goes and does their own thing, or stays at home to be with the inactive person, but resents becoming cut off from their formerly active life.
And I can understand why a big weight loss would also impact a couple.
Change is often a scary thing to navigate, and when one person is threatened by the other's change (vs being supportive of it), it doesn't bode well for the couple.
For me, I am very aware of how my upcoming surgery and resulting weight loss may put my relationship at risk. My BF already has a very low level of energy---much lower than mine even though his is not obese and he is younger than me--and it's always been something that bothers me. I also blame a lot of my weight gain on the fact he never moves, so I don't either (lame, I know, but it's not a lot of fun doing stuff on my own.)
I know that I need to be active to be successful with my lapband. I know it will mean doing it on my own. There will be some resentment there, and I am quite aware that this may mean the demise of my relationship.
But staying fat and inactive is too high a price to pay to remain in my relationship, so let the cards fall as they may. I have one life and am fed up with letting the days slip by while there is just so much to do OUTSIDE IN THE WORLD!!!!

I could use some support, encouragement and compliments every now and then, but it just doesn't happen. I don't know what the future holds in my marriage, but at least I'll be healthy.

How do you like your band? Tight? Tighter? Tightest?


MORE, MORE, MORE

Americans love MORE: more of anything and everything. More food, more fun, and (for some of us) more fill in our bands. But striving for maximum fill in the effort to achieve maximum weight loss can be a terrible mistake.

Fat folks become obese enough to qualify for bariatric surgery because we’ve been eating more, more, more, so it’s not surprising that bandsters long for more, more, more fill. The tighter the band, the better, right?

Wrong. Here’s why: tighter doesn’t automatically yield more weight loss. It can cause eating problems, side effects and complications that none of us want. It can compromise our quality of life. It can make us miserable when all we hope for from bariatric surgery is a better life.

You’re not impressed by all that? You’re willing to risk everything in the pursuit of skinny? Then try this on for size. A tight band doesn’t guarantee weight loss. Just the opposite: it can stall your weight loss or even make you gain weight.

Do I have your full attention now? Good. Listen up and I’ll explain why tighter isn’t always better.


THE RESTRICTION FALLACY

Traditionally, the adjustable gastric band has been considered a “restrictive” weight loss surgery. Bandsters were taught to look for signs of restriction: the proofs that their bands were working. Instead of paying attention to her own eating behavior and lifestyle, the bandster waited impatiently for the flashing signs, ringing bells and slamming doors that would stop her from overeating. The idea was that the small upper stomach pouch would “restrict” food intake and result in weight loss. Sound familiar?

That was well-intentioned thinking, but it was wrong. In the past 5 or so years, band manufacturers and bariatric surgeons have come to believe that it’s a mistake to eat and eat until you set off your band’s emergency warning system, for the reasons mentioned above. Unfortunately, the re-education process is slow going, and in the meantime, the restriction fallacy lives on. Even now, approximately every third word out of a bandster’s mouth is “restriction”. It’s a catch-all term for the feelings that limit how much a bandster eats. Post-op band life tends to become a Quest for enough fills to reach the Holy Land of Restriction. Next stop: Skinnyland.

Or not.


HAZARD AHEAD! THE DANGERS OF SOFT CALORIE SYNDROME

Soft Calorie Syndrome is one of the least publicized dangers of a band that’s too tight. Psychologists would call it a maladaptive behavior, that is: a nonproductive behavior that prevents you from adapting to situations, or changes in yourself or your environment, in a healthy way. It can begin as an attempt to deal with or avoid an unpleasant experience but it does not solve the original problem and eventually becomes dysfunctional. You can read more about maladaptive eating behaviors by clicking here: http://www.bariatricpal.com/page/articles.html/_/healthy-living/is-your-eating-maladaptive-r50
A bandster experiencing Soft Calorie Syndrome is responding to the unpleasant experience of eating with a band that’s too tight by eating the soft and liquid calories that slide most easily past their gatekeeper band. Instead of eating the healthy and solid foods (like dense animal Protein, veggies, fruits) that provide the most satiety (both early and prolonged), that person favors easy-to-eat food that’s often junky and high in calories (for example: potato chips, ice cream, milkshakes). Even healthy foods( like yogurt, cottage cheese and, fat-free/sugar-free pudding) can fall into the soft calorie category, and they don’t provide any better satiety than the junky stuff. The net result is that you end up consuming more calories than you need because the soft stuff doesn’t provide enough early and prolonged satiety. And the result of that is a weight loss plateau, or even weight gain.

I discovered the perils of Soft Calorie Syndrome for myself when I traveled to New York City to attend a trade show when I was about 8 months post-op. I had gotten a fill the day before I left, and by the time I got to New York I had realized that my band was too tight for me to tolerate. I couldn’t eat any solid food, so I spent the next 3 days eating soft, high-calorie, low-satiety foods like creamy Soups, milkshakes, and ice cream. I was just trying to survive long enough to go home and get an unfill. My maladaptive eating behavior achieved a temporary goal (comfortable survival) while sabotaging my long term goal of losing weight. In fact, I gained weight during that trip and ended up feeling disappointed in myself. I promised myself no more fills on Fridays and no more fills the day before a business trip. I called my surgeon’s every time I suspected my band was too tight and found that even tiny unfills could make all the difference in my quality of life as well as my weight loss.

I know I’m not the only person who’s discovered the perils of Soft Calorie Syndrome. I also know that you’re not alone in believing that more fill is better and that unfills will slow or stall your weight loss. A few months ago I talked about this with a smart and successful bandster named Denise. When her surgeon reacted to her too-tight band by suggesting an unfill of .5 cc, her dazed and frightened face made him reassure her that she could start being re-filled in a month. The month ahead scared her, but she agreed to the unfill, and discovered that rather than returning her to Bandster Hell, it had restored sanity to her eating life. She said, “I was able to eat again. Solids went down easily. bread was on my menu. Meals lasted me several hours. I didn’t snack because I was able to eat enough to keep me satisfied.”

When Denise went back to her surgeon a month later, he was delighted her hear her say that she didn’t even need a re-fill. She told him, “I can eat anything, but I’m not eating everything.”

And that, my friends, is what healthy eating is all about.

I could use some support, encouragement and compliments every now and then, but it just doesn't happen. I don't know what the future holds in my marriage, but at least I'll be healthy.

This is more true than you think. A lot of people here are saying "Not my marriage", but I hate to tell you that for a lot of us who have been fat all of our lives, we aren't prepared for the temptations that will come when we are thin and fit. Ditto for our spouses who have built their identity around a fat partner.

I'm actually interested in hearing the male perspective on how you feel about overweight spouses. Time to get honest guys!

I could use some support, encouragement and compliments every now and then, but it just doesn't happen. I don't know what the future holds in my marriage, but at least I'll be healthy.