Frederic

So I'm just venting but I'm increasingly annoyed whenever I see children at the Gym. They're generally loud. The younger ones treat equipment like toys and the teenagers reek of judgment and condescension. Intellectually I tell myself it's good that they're being active and developing good habits but my emotional self is reminded of a childhood of shame and ridicule at the hands of their predecessors. As I said I'm just venting but am trying to share more.

I always used to try and figure out how to outsmart diets then I realized 2 things 1) I was only winning against myself 2) I needed to keep my brain challenged so that "my diet" wasn't the most compelling brain puzzle to draw my subconscious. Seeing a counselor or therapist could definitely help with the behavior you're describing but if you want to try and be more proactive; rather than figuring out how to eat more, make your challenge figuring out how to eat slower and/or healthier.

I believe you and your support group leader are suffering from bad vocabulary. What they're calling Accountability sounds more like Consistency but you seem to be defining it as Responsibilty which you're then processing as Guilt. Whether or not you need to weigh yourself daily will depend on how much your brain relies on feedback to maintain motivation for behavioral changes. How it makes you "feel" is a secondary effect influenced by your own emotional outlook. I really feel the key to long term success is to focus on changing your habits daily (or even hourly) but gauge your success/progress with a broader view.

I try to run every morning. I realized just like changing my eating habits I needed to focus on making exercise a habit not just an activity. I started by just walking 5 minutes then added a minute after 5 days. I then went to 7 minutes after 6 days. Currently I run 23 minutes. Every once in awhile I think I should just increase my exercise time to 30 or 40 minutes but than I remeind myself when I've tried that in the past it gets easier and easier for something to interrupt my routine. With this method I'm slowly adjusting my schedule and my internal clock it actually gets easier and easier to make those small adjustments to my workout time.

Personally I like to keep it simple if I have breakfast at all. A hard boiled egg or a 1 oz. chunk of extra sharp cheddar.

I also use cocktail spoons, rather than a cocktail fork though I usually use chopsticks (you can order some very nice travel pairs). If I don't have my special utensils available I try cut all of my food up right away to appropriate sized portions.

I hated exercising for years. I encourage you to focus on the habit first of all. I started by just walking for 5 minutes every morning before showering. Slowly increase the time and intensity of your workout after you've got the habit of taking the time. If you're like me and used to get bored while exercising I would suggest finding and listening to a good podcast or music. It really helps take your mind off the time and helps you think of the time as not being wasted since you're listening to something you enjoy at the same time.

Ironically I can't give blood because I'm still too heavy. Something about insurance liability on the amount of weight their donor couches can support. If you want to know what embarrassment feels like just have that conversation multiple times. "We'd like you to cone down and donate blood since you're a universal donor." "I'm sorry we can't take your blood even though you're in good health on average you're too heavy for our furniture." If I do reach a "goal" weight I could see getting a tattoo of my starting weight and my goal weight. Just 2 numbers to most people but a pretty significant symbol for me. This of course would mean I wouldn't be able to give blood again.

Gas is the most often overlooked cause of back pain. After surgery I was lathering my back with ointment for what I thought was sore muscles to no avail until I tried a Gas-x strip and within 5 minutes the pain was gone.

I cook at home alot and still think MFP is the best food log option out there. Most ingredients are in the database it's just a matter of figuring out how much of each ingredient will be in each portion. I usually just divide by three since I portion meals out for myself, my wife, and her lunch the next day (I usually skip Breakfast and have a lighter lunch). As for the original post congratulations on your steady loss. If you can add exercise to your regular routine I believe you'll not only see but feel a noticeable improvement in your health.

I usually maintain a 500 to 1000 calorie deficit depending on how much exercise I get in. A month ago I would feel satisfied on 1/3 cup of food now I don't feel satisfied until closer to 2 or 3 cups and feel hungry more frequently. A month ago I wouldn't feel like eating anything until 2 or 3pm now I'm needing a high Protein snack around 10 or 11am and feeling hungry again about 3 hrs later. As for getting stuck when it happened a month ago it would ruin my appetite for the rest of the meal and I'd realize I was satisfied but now I'm hungry again once the stuck feeling passes. Unless I'm misinterpreting everyone's input I believe I'll request a small fill.

So I had a fill scheduled for later in the month and moved it up 2 weeks because I'm tired of gaining and losing the same 3 pounds for the last 2 weeks. I can see from my food log I'm eating less, from my exercise log I'm exercising more, and my pant sizes are getting smaller but the scale which I've always been able to accept fluctuations on before is driving me nuts. Am I jumping the gun? Expecting too much change too quickly? I still get stuck occasionally but I'm not feeling as full as I did during the first month after surgery.

I believe the key thing to note is that if you review the studies closely they don't have conflicting data they just present the information differently. One effectively says "There is a 20% chance of failure!" the other says says "There is an 80% chance of success!"

I'm also 6ft and I usually aim for about 1,200 calories whether I get a workout in or not. It definitely sounds like your hunger is a big issue. You may need to spend some time learning about your specific body's hunger cues. My stomach growls all the time post band but it never means I'm hungry. If you're feeling weak from hunger you may need to be more specific in what nutrients you're eating as well as more specific about when and how much you eat. I usually lose my appetite after cardio but get ravenous after lifting weights. Each of our bodies is different and we often don't know them as well as we think.

From the sound of it you have a large frame like myself so I encourage you to do two things 1) familiarize yourself with the post band lifestyle that means develop an exercise habit, start counting calories, and practice eating slowly and only when hungry. The more you do this beforehand the easier it will be to benefit from the band. The band does not make these habits easier it just makes them more effective. 2) research realistic goals for yourself. BMI and weight are not always the best measures of success. If you have a large frame I would encourage you to focus on things like waist size, range of motion, and stamina for benchmarks to gauge your success since your weight may plateau multiple times during your weight loss journey and it's important to see forward progress.

I was born big and have always been guilty of cleaning my plate but my eating habits are vastly better than the average American. The whole reason my doctor recommended WLS is because any average person would have been losing (a lot) of weight if they watched what they ate and were as active as I was. The truth is some of us are simply burdened with a physiology that is not equipped for modern living and evolution can't keep up.

You shouldn't be scared but you should be prepared. As miserable as it feels getting stuck you do survive and... A) you learn to be more careful next time And you know your done eating at that meal.

Well I had my first "slime" episode this afternoon and I now understand what people meant when they said it wasn't like vomiting. The upside was that the novelty of the sensation helped me forget about the stuck feeling immediately beforehand. I can say that stuck episode was the most unpleasant experience I can recall in recent years nearly bringing me to tears. The frustrating thing is I can't clearly figure out what caused it. The material that came up with the slime was indistinguishable and I hadn't been trying anything I hadn't tried before. I can only assume the broccoli wasn't as done as I thought.

The need for willpower can be eliminated through proper training. All cravings come from a real need but we aren't always good at recognizing what the need is. When you're hungry real hunger goes away with relatively small amounts of food if eaten slowly. We may still want to eat and many of us have developed empty plate syndrome where we feel compelled to clean our plate regardless of how full we feel but that isn't real hunger and it can be fought by applying new (sometimes silly seeming) behaviors into our routines. Using smaller plates, setting down utensils, using smaller utensils, these strategies help us reprogram ourselves and if we stick with them for 28 days straight they have a shot at becoming habits. Often when people try to find willpower what they need to do is look for a strategy that will allow them consistency. It's slow but the results are much more likely to stick.

I also struggled with liquids initially but I just kept water within arms length and tried to drink whenever I saw the cup. Then one day it was suddenly easy I could drink normally (which was my cue to start avoiding liquid calories). Some people always need to sip after the band but it's too early for you to worry about anything your experiencing as being "how it will be forever".

I really do understand why you feel so negative about the band; and your discomfort and pain are very real but as cognitive creatures we need to temper ourselves to remember our experiences are singular and no one person's experience (positive or negative) is representative of a universal experience that will be shared by all of our fellow members of humanity.

It works by creating an artificial pouch at the top of your stomach that triggers your satiation response more easily. How quickly and easily food leaves the pouch is adjusted by modifying the size of the opening between the pouch and the rest of your stomach. The surgery itself is generally less risky than other weight loss surgeries since it is less invasive but there are risks of complications since an artificial device is being implanted and there is a chance of malfunction. Like all bariatric surgery options the key to success is modified behavior along with the surgery. My research has indicated that all weightloss surgeries have approx the same success rate 3yrs post op. some have rapid loss followed by weight gain until they stabilize but Lap band usually has slower consistent loss and then stabilizes.