lisacaron

Loved reading about the great weekend everyone had! Dating and going out on the town what fun!!!

Beautiful photos. Congratulations happy anniversary!!! Looks like a great time!!! Keep smiling.

Hi all. Lost the thread for a bit just reading and catching up again:) everyone is doing awesome and looking marvelous!! Bandista I am going to be doing a 5k this July! Just got my registration# today! It feels good to finally be able to do it. Every year I have to decline for one health reason or another. Last year it was for Lapband surgery! This year I am fit and healthy and we are gonna cross those finish lines!!! Take a photo as you do and let's share our victory!!! GW love the small sizes and you look great. I hate shopping and so far that has not changed clothes and food shopping so not my forte. Off to beddy bye early early as I head to NJ tomorrow at 5am for safety training. I totally deserve a FAT raise!

Best advice is to call your Dr. and find out what his protocall is for eating before a fill. My Dr. does not have one since there is no swallow or x-ray prior to the fill. I have eaten before going in as early as 45 minutes before my fill nothing bad, and nothing good to report about it If you have radiology with a fill though that changes things so call and find out how your Doc will fill and what he requires then enjoy some time with kiddies no matter what

@@ljones4521 OK I understand what your meaning is a bit better now. I will often go back to band basics when I have a stall or fall off the wagon for a bit and let my eating get the best of me. I usually do this when I have a fill put in my band as well. I will go back to liquids then mushy then soft then solids and yes that will encapsulate shakes for the first few days. You can surely go back to the basics and get a "reset" or jumpstart not a bad idea at all. My Nut suggests 60-80 grams per day of Protein, 64+ oz of Water. Calorie range between 800-1000. If you want to burn 1200-1400 can be a bit high depending on your metabolism and your output. So if you are not working out burning 500-700 calories a day I would tend to make 1200 my MAX for the day. Sounds like you have a plan of action!!!

So some of these things...tomato basil soup...could have been too hot - could be too acidic and bothering your tummy (I know for me even spaghetti sauce/ pizza sauce can irritate my belly). Taco...taking you too long to eat and a the hard shell or soft shell can totally get stuck when moist they swell up. Try taking the inside out of the taco and eating just that. The pork chop is a good choice but it can also be a tough meat and/or dry. Try cooking it in fat free broth to keep it moist and/or using some brown gravy or bbq sauce with it. Cut it up to small baby bites the size of a pencil eraser as if you were feeding a toddler. There is one thing my NUT (nutritionist) says that I like and totally agree with. If you are eating for longer then 20 minutes you are eating your next meal. So if your not done eating in 20 minutes stop eating until the next meal.

@@ljones4521 If you have had success with this diet before give it a go and let us know how it goes. Most of us have a certain amount of fill in our bands and we choose to eat solid forms of Protein to stimulate the band as the food passes through and satiate hunger on smaller quantity for longer amounts of time between meals. There is nothing wrong with drinking your nutrients, I would just watch the calories since some of those shakes can be a whopping 6-700 calories in one drink. I can see the need for fats in our diet when eating solid foods but I wonder how that would affect liquids since the protein is pretty much already broken down there is little for the actual digestive system to break down further and thus it should be distributed through out the body more readily and the waste also removed equally efficiently. Some fats are necessary for the health of the body and joints, but I try to limit some of the fats I eat because I want my body to burn my excess fat first rather then any fat that comes from my diet. In the consumption of calories as I understand it the body will burn your carbs and excess fats eaten first before dipping into fat stores.

@ it is fine to be you, of course it is who else would you be? The trouble with food "addiction" and using food to mask or sooth our selves emotionally is that it does not actually help us heal from what it is that is making us feel badly. In the end eating only makes us feel badly for failing ourselves yet again. So one of the issues you mentioned is that your marriage is not good, and from reading the rest of your post I take it that self esteem and self worth are not very good either. You feel judged by your family and friends and worst of all by the reflection in the mirror. You, yourself. A good therapist might be able to guide you along through some of these areas but the first steps always start with ourselves. Only we can make the changes, in our behavior in our outlook and in the way we cope with and respond to things around us, both positive and negative. So the first step is that you are going for this surgery. You are doing it for YOU and you alone. Your doing it...why? Can you take some time to write a bit of journal? Why are you having surgery? What do you hope to get from this surgery? What is your plan of action to stay the course? Will you follow doctor's orders? Take some time during your pre-op and write down your plan, how you feel about it and what you hope to gain from it and what challenges you might face as you start walking down this path to a new and healthy you, and what your coping strategy might be as you encounter these challenges? What will you do? How will you respond? Why? How can you respond differently? When I am emotional about something and I would normally turn to food, I now try to not jump to that comfort "food" but to find something that makes me feel good. I might take a drive with all the window's down and the music up, or I might put on a pair of headphones and find a quiet corner and tune out the rest of the world. If I am able I might get a massage or a pedicure or I might just take a nap. In extreme cases I will take myself to the beach at night and just stand on the sand looking out at the ocean and in all it's vastness I am but a tiny grain of sand and my problems are even smaller than that...this always makes me feel better. Most of the time doing something else that I love that's just for me in that moment helps to fill the emotional void and release my stress and I feel better, so try to fall into that rather than the ice cream box. If I still feel that I need to have that ice cream though...well I just have it and I don't beat myself up about it after. We need to treat ourselves with TLC all the time especially when we are upset or emotional. Good luck on your journey I suspect you are going to do just fine!

Yes, yes yes. The port seems always to be a "sore" spot for me. Not that it hurts all the time but more that I hit it and rub it the wrong way often. When I get a fill sometimes it's a bit swollen where the needle goes in and but mostly it's from my everyday things. For me it's hitting and leaning into my desk at work which sits right at the port site. Sometimes it's from something I pick up and carry too close to my tummy like the laundry basket. Don't worry I doubt you did any damage to it, it can just be a sensitive area for us.

I would have to concur with all the statements above. I had a nice fill in my band a few months back and was doing great just starting to feel like I was where I wanted to be. Then I got sick, tummy virus going around caused my husband to have to take out all the Fluid in his band (he got it the worst vomiting uncontrollable) and I had about 1.5 cc taken out for precaution. Recently I had that put back in and I'm again at that "green" zone and it really does take an adjustment in your eating and your habits to prevent that PB or stuck feeling from happening. Having the fluid out and the band relaxed a bit over the last few months allowed me to eat quickly and things I might not eat in the way I was eating them. Like a steak or chicken breast just cutting chewing and going for the next bite. Now I have to be sure I cut small, chew well, swallow and then start cutting the next bite. Back to those early band mechanics that we can forget all too easily. Give it a chance, and see if you can make some changes in your mechanics and food choices to help ease the PB affect and get your numbers moving again.

Nope, addressing the issue if worrying about a foreign object in your body.

Ah all I have to say is don't go looking for trouble because you will usually find it. Just go with it enjoy the weight loss, take care of yourself and your band, live your life and be happy!! Life in general is just too short to be worrying about it, if a problem arises deal with it then and don't worry. We have enough saggy skin we don't want to add wrinkles and worry lines to it

Thank you to everyone for coming out to spend the afternoon with us. It was wonderful to meet you all!!! Big thank you to Alex for coming out and spending the afternoon with us as well. Hope to see you all again at our next meeting in NYC August 2nd at the Atruim. Stay tuned for info on the July meeting on Long Island!!!

@@Tinaree You know at first I was thinking OMG am I really going to go back to the gym? I wrote on another thread about my experience at the gym before even thinking about WLS. I had a personal trainer who was one of those very fit and muscled guys. I was at about my highest weight ever, but I sucked it up because I wanted to be healthy and fit and I made the appointment had my fitness tested adn signed up for training. Unfortunately I had other larger issues then my weight at the time and ended up needed surgery and I stopped going to the gym for a long while. Now after my surgery adn losing a bit of weight but still overweight, I am back at the gym and in the pool doing aqua fit classes. I walk in and through and out of the locker rooms and sauna in my one piece (no skirt) bathing suit and I feel GREAT about it! when I miss a class I am upset with myself because I love going so much. At first I thought I can't change in front of these Barbie dolls...they are all going to eye ball me walking through to the locker rooms all those muscled toned people and you know what I found..they all are so passionate about fitness they all want to help me get fit and healthy even more! They are my champions and I feel good about showing up every time I walk through the doors. I go to LA Fitness so it's not a small gym, and I use several over the area not just one gym and those "regulars" now know me by name and face and they are always nice, and if I'm not sure of a machine or a workout routine they take the time to stop and help me out. I just love it and I bet soon you will too, cause I NEVER thought I woud like let alone learn to love going to the gym!

I was like you and though I had some co-morbitids they were not symptom related. However after losing weight even a minimal amount I felt more energetic and I am able to do so much more. I am motivated to get up and get out there and do 100 more things then I do in an average day. For those who know me they know I cannot and do not sit still and I don't stop. I am always on the go doing something learning something doing 100 things at once and now I am doing 200 I have also learned to shift things in my life and make myself priority #1 where before I always made myself last on the list and that never feels good. So yes taking care of myself and having more energy and being able to do more in a day and give back to the community etc. makes me feel good and I would not feel that way if I had not lost the extra weight that was holding me down just for the sheer physical inability to get things done.

Prior to my surgery when I was just about at my highest weight I joined a gym with my husband I an contracted with a personal trainer. I want to let you know that having that trainer really helped me with learning what my body could do and how to do it without hurting myself. I was not one to shy away because of my weight, as I was very excited to have someone who was looking out for ME at the gym. Now during this time, I ended up having to stop going to the gym and seeing the trainer as I was sick and needed to have surgery that took some time to recover from. Currently I am back at the gym. I use LA fitness, along with the gym I have at work. I go to an aqua fit class 3 times a week. I am able to move and jump and do cardio in the pool with minimal affect to my joints. I am looking into contracting another trainer at the gym for a more tailored work out. If you can afford to having someone who knows you and your weight and your restrictions, they are able create a program that is designed just for you and tailored to your body and your needs for weight loss or muscle growth etc. I was never a big gym lover in the past and used to think I would not fit in...but I have to say I have found them to be very comfortable places to be even being unfit and overweight there are people out there who want to champion your fitness.

We will be holding the July Bariatric Pal support group for NY/LI on Long Island. Stay tuned for information!!! You can always PM me directly if you would like to take an active role in helping set up the meeting!! Look forward to meeting you!

I'm sorry that you have to go through this, and I'm sure that you are feeling pretty alone and sore about the whole thing right now. It's great that you are able to reach out people here and get some solid feedback and have a place to vent your feelings. I agree with what @@PdxMan had to say in his post. Often there are underlying issues at the heart of our behaviors, and the only way to find out what they are is to have an open and honest conversation about them with the person. That is easier said then done. Part of your journey was probably a psych eval, and if the behavior continues and becomes troublesome to you and/or your marriage and family it might be wise to give that Dr. a call and maybe they can help facilitate the conversation with you and your husband. Good luck with everything, take care of yourself and give yourself the extra TLC you need right now.

I would not tell my pre WLS self a thing because she would not have listened to me anyway! What I do tell others before their surgery now, is not to be afraid it's not the end of your life or the last time you will eat or eat your favorite foods. Your relationship with food may change but it will be for good. After surgery you will eat again and you will enjoy the food you eat that much more as you take the time to enjoy each bite and not shovel through it.

Awe you are just too sweet

@@enjoythetime So the trick for you my friend is not to add more food to up the calories but to eat things that are a bit higher and denser calories so your intake is the same amount in volume (portion) of food but the calorie content is higher. @@PrettyThick1 you have done amazing so far, but your body is not going to know that you want the switch to dim now that it's in burning mode. To do that you have to do the same as enjoy and that is to eat foods that have a denser calorie content. They don't have to be "junk" foods either just foods that rather then 100 calories have 200 or more. With WLS the last thing we want to do is change our volume of food and stretch things or reduce Fluid in the band and be out of the green zone but to help your body slow down, chose foods that are higher in calories and relax on the cardio a bit. Work more now on the muscle tone, lift some weights take a couple of days recover between and you will see that you will start to tone, and the weight loss will slow down and/or maintain. Give it a try...

@@Lah15 Good for you for reaching out! Not every spouse would do that for their partner. I could understand where you might even be upset and offended by some of the things you have been going through with your significant other right now. While she is going through lots of changes, and yes the mood swings are going to be part of it if she is/was an emotional eater and also because the body chemistry is changing. Body fat holds major amounts of hormones and estrogen as you lose that weight the hormone levels in your body are changing as well and if your sensitive to this it can and will affect your mood. If you can get your partner to recognize this in herself when she follows up with her Dr. she can speak to them about it as well and there might be something they can help with to off set the mood swings in these initial phases for her and for you. There is help out there and neither of you have to suffer through it, and it sounds like you are both suffering right now. Try to talk to her about speaking to the Dr. about the mood swings, and go from there. Best of luck, and keep up the great support!!

Great post, as there are many Dr.'s now that are part of the Bariatric practice Endocrinologist in particular who are considering these drugs and supplements to aid patients in weight loss. I know two of the newer drugs that have been approved by the FDA are : Qysimia which is a Phentermine/topiramate mix and Belviq which works as a serotonin booster. One of the more popular diet supplements that has been going around my office as of late is the Garcina Cambogia supplement that is touted by Dr. Oz. There are a couple of ladies taking the drug here who I would say are seeing some results and I am not sure what it is about the supplement but from what I have read it also acts as a serotonin booster and fat burner combined. However some of the behaviors that I see from these ladies is more akin in my mind to Anorexia then it is just in trying to diet and keep weight down. They are scary skinny, gym rats who obsess about that 5-10 pounds. I say that not to be judgemental it's just an observation, I am not so not sure how this supplement would work for someone who is overweight starting out. There is one lady who wanted to try it..and I was curious to see how it might work for her, however her Primary Dr. said NO she was not to try using the supplement due to other medications she is on for certain co-morbidity's. I have personally experienced Qysimia which at a low dose is ineffective and at the higher does left me jittery, with high blood pressure, red red (cartoon like) red eyes, aggressive and angry. Needless to say that did not work for me at all, it did curb hunger a bit but the Lapband does that without those side affects. I'd be interested to read others experience with any of these supplements and medications.

Plastic surgery advocate here! For me though I don't think there is much hope...since I have a huge muscle there that is not going anywhere fast. I have had this "double" looking chin since I was a skinny little kid, developed the muscle playing woodwind instruments in the Orchestra from the age of 7. You would think oh a muscle great you can tighten it up...yeah still not such an awesome look, if I don't lift my head up in a photo..I end up looking like a old cabbage patch kid. So if the jowls start to droop…let me tell ya I’ll be in the surgeons office weight loss or not. Not all muscle growth is good…lol.

Oh I love this idea! @@JustWatchMe great post! I have lost the equivalent of 3 spare tires!