stept04

The Dr. wanted me on a high Protein low carbohydrate diet before the liquid stage. I am noticing a problem I am having. I never really eat a lot and I've always wondered why I did not lose weight. Don't get me wrong I did get to this size by not eating to much, but over the past few years my way of eating has changed and I don't really eat. I changed the types of food I eat to better foods and still no weight loss. But I have to be putting in more than I expend right. Since I started this diet I notice I don't want to eat. I Just want to eat my yogurt and granola all day. But I figured if that is all I eat then I have a healthy dinner that would work, nope. So, some how I keep tricking myself into thinking I'm doing the right thing. I notice I want something fast and easy but also something that's got sugars. I don't want to sabotage my success with the band. But it seem I would rather not eat than to eat right. I don't understand why the weight does not come off when I eat less than everyone else in the house. So, what's going on. I need to figure this out before I get the band. I'm afraid I'll not eat all day then eat the wrong stuff thinking its OK. Because when I checked my yogurt and granola, which you think would be OK, well even though it was low fat the sugars and carbs seemed like they were quite high. I think I may know what is wrong but would like some other input to make sure. I do seem to find away around my diets so they are not effective,and that is scaring me .Did anyone else have this problem? Thanks for any suggestions.
PS. I don't exercise because I have a torn meniscus in my knee that they haven't fixed yet. Don't know if they are going too , they seem to be fixed on my weight more. So maybe if I lose the weight they'll fix it. I also have hypothyroidism but I'm on meds for that. I don't know if that still affects things. I think I am afraid of failure, and this would be an expensive failure.

I use Nature's way Alive Whole food Energizer liquid Multi. I got it at The Vitamin Shoppe. It taste a little grassy, but you only take a cap full.

Sorry, I'm new. What is a pouch test? I get my band in May.

Anyone familiar with Bariatric Solutions and Dr. Steven Stowers in Texas. I was just concerned how involved they should be with me in the beginning. I'm due to have surgery May 28th. I've never meet Dr. Stowers I've just meet with his assistant, a Dr. too. I meet with Stowers the day before my surgery. I've meet with the nutritionist once for about 20 min. They have a number you can call and get any questions answered. have not had any problems with them. I don't know if they have an after hour number,but I'm sure they would, need to ask. I just thought there would be more interaction with the Dr. and nutritionist with requards to me. Does this sound normal to anyone? They did give me an extensive booklet,and they told me to read it cover to cover. Which I have. It just sounds from the post that your all's Dr.s are more interactive with you. Does that happen more after the surgery? Just wanted to make sure they know what they are doing. I did research, they seemed to be on the up and up. Just thought I'd ask. Thanks

My journey to get WLS as been almost 9 yrs. I started out with trying to get gastric by-pass when my husband was in the military. But, I did not have any health conditions that supported me having surgery so they would not pay for it. Next, I had insurance that would pay for it but by the time I got ready to do it, my husband lost his job. His next job they would'nt cover me. Then I just gave up on it, thought it would never happen. Then one day something made me go read the coverage booklet,and low and behold they changed and now they cover it. So now I'm scheduled to get banded May 28th. That was just the short version. Nine years is a long time,and every one around me was getting banded it su&^%ked. But, once I let go and let god so to speak it actually ended up going by fast now that I look back. Any way I quess I'm saying It's not over till its over. I'm getting banded, unless something happens .Then will just see what happens. Don't give up it can still work out somehow. Good Luck

Yes,I am a "mature" student as well. I've just started though. My surgery is in May, and I can't imagine going to school and dealing with the band at the same time, in the beginning anyway. I'm having a hard enough time waiting on my surgery and going to school right now with finals and all, it has been affecting me. I could have had my surgery during spring break, but I decided that wasn't enough time off. I'm going to take summer one off so I'll have a month or so till I have to go back. I hope that will be enough time to adjust. Good luck with everything.

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

Try Glamorise Bras. I am a 46F and I love their bras, they don't ride up on me, they are comfortable, and love the support. I know they have some sport bras.

What is lapband with plications?

Voted. Good Luck!

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'll just take things one day at a time ,and follow the rules as I go.

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'll just take things one day at a time ,and follow the rules as I go.

Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Stephanie and I'm 47 yrs old. Scheduled to get my lapband May 28th with Dr. Stowers. My weight is 275 and my goal is 150. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions in the near future. Right now I'm just seeing if I can get any weight off on my own at first. Well wish me luck and thanks for listening.

Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Stephanie and I'm 47 yrs old. Scheduled to get my lapband May 28th with Dr. Stowers. My weight is 275 and my goal is 150. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions in the near future. Right now I'm just seeing if I can get any weight off on my own at first. Well wish me luck and thanks for listening.

Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Stephanie and I'm 47 yrs old. Scheduled to get my lapband May 28th with Dr. Stowers. My weight is 275 and my goal is 150. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions in the near future. Right now I'm just seeing if I can get any weight off on my own at first. Well wish me luck and thanks for listening.