drea1019

Hi There i guess we are twin souls i was banded on 12/19 and will have my first fill tuesday as well. I feel every thing you are saying. I saw in another forum where cheryl put a link to some containers i will be buying those because i just feel like im doing something wrong. I know in my mind im still healing and weight loss will be slow now i have tgo get it in my heart and do more than what im doing. stay strong and good luck

Had to give in and go buy new bras. Why is it the boobs are the first to go? Went from a DDD cup to a C.

Today it's 4 months that I changed my life - I allowed a surgeon to cut open my belly and wrap a band around my stomach as a means to help me be more cautious with food. Today - I can say, yes it's working. I can also say, it's been expensive hard work! And I can also say it's a journey all on it's own, in that it's been disappointing and it's been enlightening and mostly out of my control.
You see, I was an ove-reater - (I love the word WAS ). What the band has disallowed over the past 4 months is the ability to over eat and right now it's less than predictable. Daily, I do manage to get in calories and eating later in the day is easier (meaning, the food goes thru the band with ease) - I can NOT mindless eat anymore. Every bite I take is a bite that I've got to consciously take - which slows down the entire process, hence less food consumed in a days time.
Interestingly - I am unable to P&B (purge and binge?) - in other direct words, I am unable to vomit my food - I may vomit slime and phlegm but never what I swallow - this has been unexpected. I figured that when you got "stuck" the food would come back up - and I know many that it does this - for me it doesn't. Instead it's painful and long living - meaning it hurts and the food does eventually go down, but it's scarring and an episode I will not forget nor want to relive.
I am not quite 30lbs down (my expectations were 40lbs in 4 months) - (I know that's not realistic) - so...I am grateful for the 7lbs per month average - I'm one of those people who drop 5 lbs over night but the scale doesn't move for 3 weeks.
The best news on all of this - each pound I do lose - I won't ever see again. Note to newbies - it takes a long time - so have patience and do the right things - and the weight will come off.
One of my best friends said to me today - "Cathy, it's been a long time since I've seen you this happy" - and it's because of the band. I know the next 30 lbs will be gone by my 45th b'day - August 7th! I just have to keep walking the walk.
babble but the message is there - especially for those who are just tired of being fat and have no power over the fork - this does help - at least it's helped me!
Peace!

Thanks- I will hope for the best and plan for the worst as they say, and thus will be pleasantly surprised at either outcome.

Hi again- thanks for all the advice! I am just so surprised. I can't believe my blessings. I went in for banding today- by myself because my wife had to work. I was so nervous- even updated my will last night. Can't believe how smooth everything went. My main concern was that this particular surgeon and practice is strong arming everyone to get the sleeve, which I believe is so that there is no long term patient follow-up like the band requires, and so they don't have to deal with your band idiosyncrasies. (Just my humble opinion, not trying to flame anyone but I guess I just did.)
In fact, I kept getting "haven't seen a band in a long time- wow" from nurses and staff as they came in to make the pre-op rounds. In any event, everyone was wonderful. Surgery was 1:15- turns out had a large hiatal hernia- no wonder I had been coughing every night for 3 years. Thus got 2 for 1 Tuesday special bates of Tuesday Tacos 2 for 1!
Woke up in recovery, sat in bed for 10 minutes, felt zero pain, got up went to the bathroom, felt zero pain. Got dressed and went home 20 minutes later. Have not slept, no pain meds, drinking fluids and doing the gas strips. Feel no gas pains. Feel no pain at all- keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Walked around the grocery store for an hour, did some shopping for the family, now just sitting up watching tv- no pain at all. In this was a blind study, I would totally think I was the placebo patient!
Thanks again for all the advice- looking forward to talking with you all more as I journey down this new path. If the pain comes, I'm ready and waiting- bring it on. Nothing good in life is ever easy- accept all the excess food I thoughtlessly ate over the past decades!

Yes, that really would be awesome! I am tight in the morning, too. Not feeling at all in need of anything until late-morning. Today I had a Protein shake with fruit but sometimes it's a yogurt or oatmeal with flax & chia seeds.

Before and after pictures !

Wow! 17 pounds in a month is awesome! 6 in a month is great! When was the last time you lost 23 pounds in 60 days? Uh huh, YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY! Not every month will be what you want, but as long as the scale is moving in the right direction, you are winning! Chin up! Your are more awesome than you give yourself credit for!

Ok...here we go. A new month....Time to get off our collective butts and push ourselves a little bit. This isn't about weight loss so much as it's about living/breathing/moving more...feeling better....improving the quality of our life through fitness. Not to mention pushing ourselves to do a little more than we thought we could.

As always....set a goal for yourself. Something that you know will be challenging. State what your goal is....then come back every chance you get to update your progress.

Make your goal something specific and measurable. XXX miles walking/running/cycling/ellipticing/swimming/crossfitting/weightlifting. Or XXX hours working out this month.....XXX times going to the gym this month....whatever you want.

I plan to walk 50 miles and ride my bike 75 miles.
Everybody join in. Exercise and fitness will make you feel better, help you sleep, speed up your metabolism, increase our strength and stamina, lengthen your life....and make you look better naked. Face it, we could all use that.
Butter normally starts this thread, but said someone needed to set it up for February.

I'm 13 months banded with no fills. I also have restriction even without a fill and I also think don't fix what ain't broke. If I find myself hungry too often down the road, I'll talk to the doctor at that time. And no...it's not plain willpower. I've dieted enough to know the difference.

Hello my name is Lauren I had my lap band surgery on August 2nd 2013 and I started out at 212 pounds, I am now 163 I have lost 49 pounds and I have no Fluid in my band. Why you ask? Well it's a personal choice based on the motto if it's not broken don't fix it. I have been consistently losing weight every week since my surgery and have found no real need to get any fluid. I have been to my check ups regularly and my doctor says I'm doing amazing. Yes I still have restriction and no I cannot eat whatever I want. I do not eat any bread or Pasta if I do its SMALL amounts and it's either toasted bread or angel hair spaghetti cut really really small. I eat small portion sizes and I eat slow. I used to base my entire day around food and would eat what ever I wanted when ever I wanted it. I now eat to survive. I eat what my body needs for fuel, I no longer eat for fun. I used to live for being able to go out to eat I loved everything about it. I still love it but for different reasons, now I get excited about getting dressed up and feeling amazing, I challenge myself to leave the restaurant feeling good and not stuffed and I ALWAYS get to go boxes. I HAVE to exercise, it makes everything better. Depression runs in my family and I have to keep motivated. Doing just 20 minutes of weight lifting or cardio changes my entire mood. I am a nursing student so I am highly stressed out so it helps with that as well. I am 18 pounds away from my first goal and I'm feeling great. Lap band has changed my life in ways I never could have imagined, from big things like not having to worry about someone asking if I'm pregnant to small things like wearing a white t-shirt it's just amazing. Maybe one day I will get to a point where I need/ want a fill but for right now I like everything just the way it is. If you have any questions or wanna talk about anything feel free to message me im a very open person!

I've been a bit down because my loss has slowed due to inactivity. Last month I sustained a stress fracture which had me on crutches for three weeks and, just as that was getting better, I slipped a disk in my back. Oh the pain! Even getting from the bed to the living room is more of a shuffle than a walk.
But! These pics make me happy. And I know once my disk slides back into place, I'll be back to pushing my FitBit to the sky.
Keep moving, everyone!
 

I was so worried I was doing something wrong.. I have lost 10pds in a month.. my doctor told me I was doing great so no fill for me yet..I was thinking I'm not losing enough. Just wanted to share.. any tips for keeping up the Good fight.

Are you still searching for the feeling we call “full”?
Not once in my life before my band surgery did I ever feel I had eaten enough food. Day after day, meal after meal, I searched for the feeling of “full”. I had no idea what it felt like, for many reasons. Some were emotional, some spiritual, some physical. Researchers now theorize that the internal message system in obese people doesn’t function properly, so that we don’t receive or comprehend “full” messages. Whatever the reason(s), I ate as if I was shoveling food into a bottomless pit that no amount of food could ever fill.


As a new bandster, it took me a long while to even begin to pay attention to my eating, never mind figure out when to stop eating. And no wonder. For over 50 years, I had eaten mindlessly, greedily, endlessly. Every single day, every meal, every moment, I ate and ate to reach what I call Thanksgiving dinner Full. I loved to cook (and still do). I loved to eat (and still do). My business travels took me all over the world, so that in each country I was able to enjoy a huge variety of different and delicious food. Occasionally the food was very strange – I can’t recommend eating the lightly grilled, still wriggling sea slug I sampled in Taiwan – but I was always game for a culinary adventure.
It’s very ironic that during those overseas travels, I witnessed true hunger, deprivation, and near-starvation firsthand. What I ate in one day then could probably feed a whole family for a week. In Southeast Asia I once met a new business associate for the first time. We talked business for a while. Then he said something startling, seemingly out of the blue: “Your family must be very wealthy.”
I said, “Uh, not especially.”
He smiled at my modesty, gestured at my size 24 body and said, “But it is true, because I can see that you eat very well.”
That encounter was mortifying on several levels, as I’m sure you can imagine. When I left that business career and coincidentally began dealing with my weight and eating issues, I also began to feel shame for my eating behavior, for the waste of all the food I’d gobbled up in my perpetual Quest for TDF (Thanksgiving Dinner Full). But how on earth could I end that quest? How could I ever learn to stop eating before I reached the TDF level?
I was extremely fortunate to start my weight loss surgery journey a short while later, and even more fortunate that my Lap-Band® eventually became such an effective tool in helping me eat less and lose weight. Although I felt I’d done a lot of research as a pre-op, I have to smile every time I think of a bandster friend who told me, “I had no idea how much work this was going to be.” I had no idea either. Every bite of food, every sensation in my body before, during, and after I ate, became a big project.
If you’re a new post-op, or even a further-out post-op, are you too discovering how much work is involved in living with and succeeding with your band? Perhaps wondering, “What have I gotten myself into?” If so, that’s OK. Remember that you’re not alone, and that you can succeed even if feels like getting there is taking forever and a day.
So, c’mon, Jean. Get to the point. Tell us: how do you know when to stop eating? Do you eat until you're full? What is “full” supposed to feel like now?
My answer to the first question is no. As a WLS patient, you don't eat until you’re full. You should never again eat that way, not just because that’s how you became obese enough to qualify for bariatric surgery but because eating that way will hinder your weight loss and can cause some nasty side effects and complications. So you’re going to have to figure out a new stopping point. And that stopping point is the satiety point.
Satiety is not quite the same as being full. For a bandster, full means that you have overeaten again and will soon be so uncomfortable you’ll have to take a few breaths before you go on to clean that plate like a good kid. (Which, by the way, is another practice you’ll have to give up sooner or later). Full means your upper stomach has reached its maximum capacity and that at any moment, that food is going to back up into your throat and make an ungraceful exit all over you, the table, and your dining companions. Full means that you sped right past your satiety point. Full means that it’s time to start paying much closer attention to how you feel as you eat.
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 will experience discomfort if you eat until you're full. If you eat to the TDF point, you won’t have that old faithful full-belly sensation that made you loosen your belt while waiting for Mom to bring you a big piece of pumpkin pie.
Instead, you’ll probably feel pressure, even pain, in your upper abdomen and chest. You’ll produce enough excess saliva to make you drool. You’ll think you’re about to power barf. You’ll be very sorry you overate. You’ll promise God and your bariatric surgeon (who are not actually the same person, by the way) that if you can feel relief right now, you’ll never overeat again. You’ll need to learn some strategies to prevent another episode of overeating. In article #3 of the Satiety 101 series, “Recognizing Satiety,” we’ll take a look at some common signals our bodies give us when we’re closing in on the satiety point.

You'll be fine as long as you follow your Dr.'s directions, from visit to visit....
Sometimes learning and reading too much only adds to the confusion...I know I read everything I could get my hands on prior, and to be honest...most of it was very basic, and common sense...I learned more from experience in the first few weeks, months, by "Being there..doing that"

Amy,I'm so sorry that you had such a bad experience. I would do evrything possible to have the thing removed if I were you. Consult a good Dr. that help you ,maybe even take payments . The rest of you need to chill, everyone makes mistakes, and we all need to try to understand that , have empathy for each other with kind words and our support.

There is no magic #...there are people in the Green who have never had a fill....and then there are those who seem to never find it..(I won't speculate as to why right now)
When I was going through this adjustment phase, I would see my Dr. once every month...after weigh-in, vital signs, etc, my Dr. would point to the chart below and ask me to point to exactly where I felt I was....he would then ask a few questions about the type of foods I am eating, any possible complications, my hunger ...compare my present weight to last months, THEN determine if I needed an adjustment, and how much...if any at all.....
So, looking at the chart below...where do you see yourself ???? And how much weight did you loose since last fil? Was it a struggle to do so ??? (this is what he would ask me...among other things)
And notice...the most important question of all...are you happy? Pleased? "Patient Satisfaction"?
I have actually had him or the PA ask me if I wanted another fill...after 2-1/2 years...and I would say "NOPE...I'm happy right where I'm at" ! (I think they were really teasing me)
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So I have now had my lap and 13 months and I am down 134lbs...sooo happyyy!!! I would let people take pictures from the neck up for so long and now I get so excited and tell them to make sure they get my whole body. Wow how things have changed. I can see my collor bones which is crazy never seen them before. Its the little things that are starting to mean the most, like not weighing more then everyone in my family! Right now I weigh 244 I have never seen this weight. In 5th grade I weighed 230 and I did not weigh again until high school and was at 315!!! Getting the lap band was best choice I could have made. So many things have changed and contiune to do so.

Hi there I feel like you madband. I was banded on Dec 19.. I want more but I'm realizing I need to do more. As I've been told on here take the time to heal we are still early in the game..it will get better. I'm praying for that. You will do fine.its hard but I'm willing to stay the course and you should too. It took a lot to get this done so I hope u stay encouraged and put up the giid fight I know I'm planning on winning. Have a great day.

Thank you both for your thoughtful and inspiring posts!

Love this! I remember thinking when I had lost 40 lbs. it was like I had been walking around with 8 5-lb. bags of sugar. What a load. No wonder I am not gasping for breath! I always equate 5 lbs. of sugar with 5 lbs. Keeps it real. .

for a day keep track of the calories you are eating. that includes Protein drinks and Protein Bars. i lost a lot while on liquids and than nothing. so i kept track and was surprised that i was eating almost 1400 calories. using even fat free milk with my Protein added 110 calories to a already 100 cal. Protein shake and thats 210 calories. and than when i added in my 3 meals and meat protein well you can see how the calories climb. you are to do what cheryl has said. measure your food. good luck

Now is the time you should be measuring your food and keep measuring it until you can safely measure out a cup of food without anything. That is the only way to ensure you do not over eat. If you are eating more then you should then that is why you should measure your food. As far as losing weight some people do and some don't but if you are eating solid foods and mainly Proteins you should still be losing. When going for a fill, it is best to go on an empty stomach but I would call the doctor and ask what they want you to do. You most certainly can walk even if your lifting is restricted. That will also help with weight loss.

When you are newly banded you can not rely on full. You never want to be full ever again. Its about being satisfied. At this time before fills you are in control and need to measure your food and only eat that amount. You will have to deal with hunger, wanting to eat because you are bored or because or because. Measure a cup of good Protein and some veggies and call it a day. If you are eating to get full you are over eating.

http://shop.fit-fresh.com/Fit-Healthy-Body-Measure-Pedometer/dp/B00F3J9GA8?utm_source=Media&utm_medium=SparkPeople&utm_term=106KIT2&c1=Media&source=SparkPeople&kw=106KIT2Overlay
This may help you with Portion Control during your first months of being banded.