salsa1877

So I have read most of the responses on here and I am just in the beggining of making the decision as to whether or not I would even consider switching from the band to VSG. I was incredibly successful with the band for about 2 years. I lost 110 pounds in 9.5 months, ran a marathon, and had 2 tummy tucks. However, I was completely unfilled just before the last tummy tuck and I have been unsuccessful in reaching any sort of restriction since then. The fills/unfills are killing me especially since I lived 7 hours away from my doctor and that drive also included a trip over mountain passes. I never really thought about my band being an issue for me, but now that I think about it I have never had the ability to maintain a fill. I have either been too tight or too loose. However, I was a self pay with the band ($17000) and would be a self pay with the VSG. I am just so apprehensive because maybe it isn't the band...maybe it is me. For those of you who didn't have medical complications (slippage, flipped port, erosion) do you feel that the VSG makes life easier? Obviously for those with the medical complications...life is much better now!! I know that food is always going to be an issue in my life, but my band is so fickle. One day I can out eat my husband and the next day every bite makes me feel like I'm going to hurl. Is the sleeve the same????
I moved to Texas in October and so now the ability to go and see my band dr. is completely removed. I did find a doc that will do fills so I am going to give this another shot. Hopefully they will be able to get a fill level that will work for me. If not...I will be seriously considering VSG. My husband seems to be more okay with this than I am. I just think that I am failing the band and myself...My food choices have not been the greatest and exercise is very difficult for me right now. Most of it is due to being depressed about the 50 pounds I have gained back. I know that I will have to take the weightloss much slower than I did with the band because I did experience some health problems due to the rapid weight loss. I want to just be healthy and if that means that I am not a size 4 I am okay with that. All I want is to get the life back that I had when my band was working...not sure that VSG will be any better. Sorry for rambling...I'm just kind of at the same panic level I was when I opted for the band.

Usually when I hiccup or hiccup/burp (the worst!) It usually is a sign that I should be done eating OR that I have eaten too quickly OR not chewed enough. Your stoma probably was irritated from vomiting but you did the right thing to go back to liquids. I feel that I would not have needed my 1st fill for a long time, but because of the distance between where I live and my doctor (6+ hour drive) I went in on the first day I was cleared to get a fill because it fit in my schedule. You might just be one of the lucky ones that gets restriction with just their band. I am at goal and trying to stop losing weight so I had a complete unfill, and I am still too restricted at times. I did not tolerate fills well at all.
So I would think that if you are not having any more heartburn and it does not hurt while eating that you are probably alright. If either one of those things return for unexpected reasons then I would see my doc. There are several people who have never needed a fill to lose weight.
Good luck and keep us informed.

My doc highly discourages the use of liquid calories for 2 reasons.
1. They are not stopped by the band and therefore MOST people do not get full or stay full from them...thus causing them to be hungry and overeat.
2. This doesn't teach you how to eat properly. Drinking my meals is not something that he anticipates most people will want to do for the rest of their life and by having them do this once they have graduated to real food, provides them with an innacurate sense of a lifestyle change.
Now stating that I know a lot of people that do drink a Protein Drink everyday either because they are too tight in the morning or because they have a hard time getting in enough Protein. However when people ask me what they should do because weight loss has stalled the first thing I tell them is to get rid of the protein drink.
As for the amount of protein...I usually get in around 100 grams a day, but that is because I am an Atkins girl at heart and that is just what I like to eat. If you want more protein you could substitute in a Protein Bar. I use Pure Protein Bars...190 calories...20 grams of protein. I get them at wal-mart. Also I found buffalo/beef sticks at GNC that were really good. 80 calories for 10 grams of protein and very filling.
Sorry I just noticed this was the "Men's room" Hope you don't mind a girl dropping in...I just was going through the unanswered posts!

I lost all of my weight being what most people would consider "very loose" After my first fill I never really tolerated them again. I would get fillled, and then would have to be unfilled because I couldn't eat. For me the only way this was going to work for me is if I changed my lifestyle. I don't eat any of the crap food that I did before. I am a rule follower by nature so when my doc gave me the rules...I just followed them. We are highly discouraged from drinking anything with calories...so if it has more calories than crystal light...I don't drink it. I don't drink with my meals, and I EAT very healthy foods. At some point (and this is going to be hard to hear) you just have to stop making excuses for why you are doing something. I was sitting on the couch one day (and I had already lost a fair amount of weight) and I said...that's it...no more excuses. For me it was the exercise. That was what I had made the excuses on. So you have to have that day. You have to make the committment to yourself that you will not make anymore excuseses. Once you do that, it actually becomes a lot easier. Then no matter how loose your band is you have taken control. I have been unfilled for over 1 month now and have managed to lose 5+ pounds. It is the mind that we have to tighten (and that comes from within!)

I am sorry to hear that you are having struggles. However I am going to post something that I have sent to a couple people and they think it is powerful for them. SO I hope that you will find some use in it as well. It is not sugar coated in any way, shape or form. I am about tough love, because if people condone behavior it will never change. Hopefully some of the advice will resonate with you.
Are you ready for some tough love? If you are not ready at this time, that if fine. Put it away in your mind that someone has given you some and come back here when you are ready. By the time I get to post this you will probably have 100 other replies, but I want to take my time and post what I really want to say.
Okay...here goes the tough love. And this will be a long post!
Nope the food in the last few days was not a good choice, but you ate them and now you need to move on and NOT do it again. You can't change what you have done but you can make better choices in the future. So the question is HOW IN THE WORLD DO I DO THAT? Well I will tell you that the answer is NOT going to come to you when you have a "brownie" (will now stand for anything that is not healthy for us for the remainder of this conversation) staring at you in the face. You have to have the tools and the mindset BEFORE that temptation ever comes up. We have to be ready to turn around at any particular moment and have a piece of brownie shoved in our face and realize that we are stronger than the calories, fat, sugar and peice of inanimate object that we are looking at. It will get harder as we lose the weight and become a little more comfortable with our bodies. At first we were hell bent on getting losing, losing, losing. Well the newness has worn off and now we are just stuck with the realization that we will always have to fight the "brownies".
Alright I am all about being practical so here are some suggestions that I have.
1. Take a piece of paper (one that you can fold up into your wallet/purse/pocket ) and divide it into sections. You may have to write down everything and then rewrite it to get it to all fit.
a. Write down all the reasons that you had MAJOR, LIFE THREATENING SURGERY. Not the reasons that you wanted to just lose weight, but what caused you to make this drastic change in your life.
b. Write down where you think you would be health wise in 10 years. What disesases, illness would you have? What meds would you be on. Look at your family for "inspiration". For me my mom died at 53 weighing 350+ pounds and had heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea and a whole host of other disorders. Within 10 years, I was going to be there.
c. Write down why you are more powerful than a brownie (this one is tough!)
d. Find some typical foods that you would love to eat (your brownies) and look up the calories and then find out how much time you would have to spend working them off in the gym.
e. Write down what about you makes you important enough to overcome your demons.
f. Now you are going to want to fit all of this on a piece of paper in bullet form so when you are faced with you brownies you can look at it and allow you to mentally fight the war that has just come up. If you can justify eating that brownie after looking at your paper, then eat it, but have no regrets, and do not dwell on it. Instead you have faced the problem UP FRONT and not looked back on it.
2. Another possible tactic. I know that you are having a tough time getting your calories down. One thing that I have found that helps me is by eating the same foods that I like but with some simple substitutions and by finding ways to remove some unneccessary ingredients. For example. I make this dessert that had 1/2 cup of frozen berries, 2 TBSP of Cream cheese and 1/2 cup of granola. The cream cheese had 60 calories and I thought..."I wonder how this would taste if I didn't put the cream cheese in it". I tried it and guess what, I couldn't even tell that it was missing. Same thing with meatloaf. Instead of eating it with ground beef now I substitute grond chicken. As long as I keep all of my veggies and other healthy fillers in, I can't tell the difference. I really learned this from Subway. I found that if I went in and ordered a foot long sandwich (obviously pre-band) and got all this deli meat and cheese and then pilled it with my favorite veggies that I all I could really taste were the veggies anyways. So first I got rid of the meat and then the cheese, and the taste of the sandwich hardly varied at all. This is what I do all the time now. I will always fix something first and then think what can I do to lower or eliminate the calories without harming the integretity of the dish.
3. This is the one that everyone is going to hate. WE JUST HAVE TO HAVE WILL POWER SOMETIMES. Yep the age ol' dieting nightmare. Our will power will not always be perfect, but we have to be able to stand up to ourselves and tell ourselves no. Before this surgery I couldn't tell anyone NO, including myself. So when my stupid head told me that I needed to go to Carl's Jr and get 2 big hamburgers and eat them in the 4 minutes it took me to get home so that I could look famished for dinner that was going to be served in 30 minutes...I never said no. NOW, I am comfortable saying no. It has helped me professionally, personally, and mentally. I thought that everyone would hate me if I said no, but now they no longer just expect things out of me. And I don't just give in to all of my brain's wishes. That is making me a better person.
4. Talk about your surgery. I have to honestly say that one of the greatest factors to my success is the fact that I have been open and honest about the surgery. I don't care what other people think about me. Go to 1A of this email and that should show you why there is nothing to be ashamed of. The more you talk about the struggles and successes of your surgery the less likely people are to shove food at you. We have one lady in our science department that brings in treats every week. After the 2nd week of school I told her about my surgery and not ONCE has she come in and offered me the food. She told me, if you ever want it, you may have some, but I don't want to push something on you that you obviously don't want. Yesterday at the staff meeting, the administration gave little food baskets to everyone for all there hard work during scheduling. However instead of a food basket I got a nice card signed by all the administrators, because the know that a food basket is pointless to me. I don't feel singled out, I feel very blessed that these people care enough about me to know what I need. Some people can't make these connections on their own and they need you to school them. I know this is tough, but I had to do it with my dad, my BF, and my brother. I asked them if they would offer a beer to a recovering alcholoic. All of them said no, and then I said then why in the hell would you offer me a cookie!
Wow I knew this would be long, but I had no idea how long. If there is any advice in here you don't like. Think about why you don't like it. Is it because it is hard...well guess what CHANGING is hard, but maybe just try part of it. If you don't like it because it goes against all of your moral beliefs, then ignore it. I will never know and it will not hurt my feelings. Even if you came back and said "Salsa you are full of crap and are an idiot" I would think " her loss!" and keep on lovin' ya. This is what friends are for. We have to be here during the good times and the bad. We have to be able to look (or type) at the other person and say "stop being an idiot" If we don't do that as friends, really we are no better than an enemy.

Don't pick a junk food item. Pick something that will not cause cravings...nuts, higher calorie cheese, butter to a meal. I didn't do a cheat day, but these are the things that I had to add to my life once I hit maintenance. You are totally right that if you add a handful of M&M's you will start binging. Most people will even if they won't admit it here. But substitute higher calorie ingredients into your meals to raise the calories one day.
IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU TRACK YOUR CALORIES! And yes that is meant to be yelled. According to my doctor, the band will only help you lose 25-30 pounds (assuming you start with a BMI over 40) if you change nothing but the portion sizes that the band will force you to eat. However, if you want to lose more...YOU HAVE TO EAT THE RIGHT FOODS. There are a bunch of different ways to eat most of the same foods that you love by substituting healthier alternatives. This is how I lost 95 pounds in 9 months. I no longer eat ground beef...instead I make my own ground chicken using a meat grinder. In fact I just bought 15 pounds of chicken tonight so that I could grind it and use it for the next couple of months. Substitute Beans for Pasta and rice. Eliminate oil...believe me you won't taste the difference. Even at maintenance I still use low fat cheese or FF cheese, because I can't taste the difference. THe next time you eat a meal, I want you to close your eyes and think about what you can taste. If you really can't taste it...eliminate it. I learned this from subway. I realized that the only thing I could taste on the sandwich was the veggies and the bread. So that is all I ever got (pre-band of course). If you need some help on reinventing your recipes, send me the recipe via PM and I will do my best to help you out.
As for getting in Protein...I feel it is essential to get off the Protein drinks as soon as you are able to eat solid foods. Those things are filled with sugar, trigger cravings, and do not keep you full. If you need to supplement, try a Protein Bar. It helps with the sweet cravings plus I have found stays with you for longer. Making sure to get in LEAN Proteins (eggs, beans, chicken, tuna) I have RARELY been under 100 grams of protein.
I hope some of this info helped. Good luck and don't give up...just keep trying new things.

Yeah I finished....:frown3::grouphug: and in record time for me!!!! Normally it takes me about 40 minutes to run 3.1 miles. Today it only took 34:30. I was so stoked when I saw the finish line and the timer. DH took pictures of me running and crossing the finish line. I will post them later tonight. We are going to back to the store and getting me another pair of the cheap shoes. They worked wonderfully today. I woke up with pretty serious pain in my right foot, but once I put the shoes on and started running it went away. I am going to take back the more expensive pair. That way I still have 2 pairs, but for less then the price of the 1! I am a bargain shopper!
Also I think I am going to look into getting a Body Bugg. I know that most of the time they are used to help you lose weight, but I really think for me it is going to be most important for maintaining. We will see though. They are pretty expensive, but I am going to try and find one on ebay that I can afford.
Well I will chat with you later, we seem to be ready to head out!

Alright here are the pictures... The quality is not the greatest, but you can still see how UGLY the surroundings are around here. Everything is brown.:smile2: We all got BRIGHT orange t-shirts as a souvenier for running the 5K. Kind of made us look like we were escaping from jail down a not quite opened freeway! We are getting a new bypass through our "big metropolis" and it opens on Monday, so the local gym sponsered this run.
While I was not the fastest person by any means I was one of the VERY few runners. Most people walked it, and most of those that started out running did not do it the whole time. But I did! Didn't stop once. My goal for next weekend is another personal best. I would like to be under 33:00. It might just be possible because it is at lower altitude and hopefully I can get more oxygen!

I'm not a Dec. Bandster, but I thought I could help! First of all...do some spring cleaning. Throw it all out. If you have kids or family that still wants them, tell them to put them somewhere you can't find them. If you have to go out and purposefully buy them, you are more likely to have a moment of sanity and put it back. I am going to copy and paste a post that I wrote for someone else. Maybe there is something in there that will help you.
Are you ready for some tough love? If you are not ready at this time, that if fine. Put it away in your mind that someone has given you some and come back here when you are ready. By the time I get to post this you will probably have 100 other replies, but I want to take my time and post what I really want to say.

Okay...here goes the tough love. And this will be a long post!

Nope the Cookies were not a good choice, but you ate them and now you need to move on and NOT do it again. You can't change what you have done but you can make better choices in the future. So the question is HOW IN THE WORLD DO I DO THAT? Well I will tell you that the answer is NOT going to come to you when you have a "cookie" (will now stand for anything that is not healthy for us for the remainder of this conversation) staring at you in the face. You have to have the tools and the mindset BEFORE that temptation ever comes up. We have to be ready to turn around at any particular moment and have a piece of cookie shoved in our face and realize that we are stronger than the calories, fat, sugar and peice of inanimate object that we are looking at. It gets harder as we have lost the weight and become a little more comfortable with our bodies. At first we were hell bent on getting losing, losing, losing. Well the newness has worn off and now we are just stuck with the realization that we will always have to fight the "cookies".

Alright I am all about being practical so here are some suggestions that I have.

1. Take a piece of paper (one that you can fold up into your wallet/purse/pocket ) and divide it into sections. You may have to write down everything and then rewrite it to get it to all fit.

a. Write down all the reasons that you had MAJOR, LIFE THREATENING SURGERY. Not the reasons that you wanted to just lose weight, but what caused you to make this drastic change in your life.

b. Write down where you think you would be health wise in 10 years. What disesases, illness would you have? What meds would you be on. Look at your family for "inspiration". For me my mom died at 53 weighing 350+ pounds and had heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea and a whole host of other disorders. Within 10 years, I was going to be there.

c. Write down why you are more powerful than a cookie (this one is tough!)

d. Find some typical foods that you would love to eat (your cookies) and look up the calories and then find out how much time you would have to spend working them off in the gym.

e. Write down what about you makes you important enough to overcome your demons.

f. Now you are going to want to fit all of this on a piece of paper in bullet form so when you are faced with you cookies you can look at it and allow you to mentally fight the war that has just come up. If you can justify eating that cookie after looking at your paper, then eat it, but have no regrets, and do not dwell on it. Instead you have faced the problem UP FRONT and not looked back on it.

2. Another possible tactic. I know that you are having a tough time getting your calories down. One thing that I have found that helps me is by eating the same foods that I like but with some simple substitutions and by finding ways to remove some unneccessary ingredients. For example. I make this dessert that had 1/2 cup of frozen berries, 2 TBSP of Cream cheese and 1/2 cup of granola. The cream cheese had 60 calories and I thought..."I wonder how this would taste if I didn't put the cream cheese in it". I tried it and guess what, I couldn't even tell that it was missing. Same thing with meatloaf. Instead of eating it with ground beef now I substitute grond chicken. As long as I keep all of my veggies and other healthy fillers in, I can't tell the difference. I really learned this from Subway. I found that if I went in and ordered a foot long sandwich (obviously pre-band) and got all this deli meat and cheese and then pilled it with my favorite veggies that I all I could really taste were the veggies anyways. So first I got rid of the meat and then the cheese, and the taste of the sandwich hardly varied at all. This is what I do all the time now. I will always fix something first and then think what can I do to lower or eliminate the calories without harming the integretity of the dish.

3. This is the one that everyone is going to hate. WE JUST HAVE TO HAVE WILL POWER SOMETIMES. Yep the age ol' dieting nightmare. (And believe me, I REFUSED to diet in my entire journey, so I use that word loosely) Our will power will not always be perfect, but we have to be able to stand up to ourselves and tell ourselves no. Before this surgery I couldn't tell anyone NO, including myself. So when my stupid head told me that I needed to go to Carl's Jr and get 2 big hamburgers and eat them in the 4 minutes it took me to get home so that I could look famished for dinner that was going to be served in 30 minutes...I never said no. NOW, I am comfortable saying no. It has helped me professionally, personally, and mentally. I thought that everyone would hate me if I said no, but now they no longer just expect things out of me. And I don't just give in to all of my brain's wishes. That is making me a better person.

4. Talk about your surgery. I have to honestly say that one of the greatest factors to my success is the fact that I have been open and honest about the surgery. I don't care what other people think about me. Go to 1A of this email and that should show you why there is nothing to be ashamed of. The more you talk about the struggles and successes of your surgery the less likely people are to shove food at you. We have one lady in our science department that brings in treats every week. After the 2nd week of school I told her about my surgery and not ONCE has she come in and offered me the food. She told me, if you ever want it, you may have some, but I don't want to push something on you that you obviously don't want. Yesterday at the staff meeting, the administration gave little food baskets to everyone for all there hard work during scheduling. However instead of a food basket I got a nice card signed by all the administrators, because the know that a food basket is pointless to me. I don't feel singled out, I feel very blessed that these people care enough about me to know what I need. Some people can't make these connections on their own and they need you to school them. Iknow this is tough, but I had to do it with my dad, my BF, and my brother. I asked them if they would offer a beer to a recovering alcholoic. All of them said no, and then I said then why in the hell would you offer me a cookie!

If there is any advice in here you don't like. Think about why you don't like it. Is it because it is hard...well guess what CHANGING is hard, but maybe just try part of it. If you don't like it because it goes against all of your moral beliefs, then ignore it. I will never know and it will not hurt my feelings. Even if you came back and said "Salsa you are full of crap and are an idiot" I would think " her loss!" and keep on lovin' ya. This is what friends are for. We have to be here during the good times and the bad. We have to be able to look (or type) at the other person and say "stop being an idiot" If we don't do that as friends, really we are no better than an enemy.

some people were having problems with this a few months ago on my regular thread and they realized that the emails somehow got switched to their junk mail. Try there.