SlowJourney

Went to the doc for my 7th fill today! Because I admitted to starting to feel restriction she only gave me .3CC (maddening!) Also because I've been so bad for the last two weeks - (va-ca and no workouts due to injuries to both my feet); I checked in and weighted two pounds more than my last visit ! I'm over it and ready to hit it hard and get back on track and be harder on myself than I've been being. My workouts are good but I'm still eating too much. My goal this month is to cut back to 3 ozs of meat and 1/2 cup of veggies and see if I can get by on that. Anybody out there not in the green zone yet getting by on that amount of food? I'm optimistic that this last fill is going to get me to the green zone. I've been hovering around it for 6-8 weeks now, just wish my doc wasn't so stingy with the fills.

Mikee57, I don't think it band related, you may have strained it some other way, maybe on the very same day so it's making you think it's banded related, but if it doesn't clear up in another few days you should probably call the doctors office just to set your mind at ease.

This whole string is all so true...each person has a different journey and arrive 'there' at different rates. How nice to fill restriction with no fill what-so-ever. What I still want to know is if once we reach our 'green zone' is the restriction constant based on the same amount of food or is it still a daily task of monitoring and controlling our intake based on ounces and cups? I guess I thought I would reach a place where I could put whatever I wanted on my plate and my lapband would tell me the definite time to stop. If that place exists, I have not reached it yet.

How much do you have in your band now, or do you know? What kind of problems did you have from the start?

I didn't bother to ask. I assumed that it would cause discomfort or bloating or both. But I have had coke zero 3 or 4 times since my surgery and have felt no ill effects, so not really sure. As a part of my healthier life style of eating I have opted not to drink soda since it has be been getting such a bum rap in the last couple of years.

I take 7 or 8 coconut covered almonds, 7 or 8 dark cocoa dusted almonds and eat one of each at a time. Just like having a Almond Joy, but no carbs!

Good for you! Sounds like you had fun. I was out to nature a few weeks back and nature itself is a motivator. I climbed a mountain too and felt like a champion!! And it's so nice to get a workout in without sitting in the gym and working out with machines. My goal is to take good advantage of the spring and get outdoors and enjoy it before the heat hits. I live in OK and the summers are unbearable most of the time. This journey I'm on is being made so much more enjoyable being able to come to this site and read/talk with folks who know and are going through the exact same thing I am. Keep up the good work.

I've got 6.8 CC in my band now. I'm feeling restriction now but still eating too much to get there. The 3ozs of meat and half a cup of veggies is not doing it for me yet. Looks like I will still have to have another one. How much does your doctor give you at a time in your band?

When did you get your first fill and how much? How many fills have you had? Are you saying that at no point did you feel any restriction until all the sudden everything you ate got stuck? Try to figure out what your doctors plan of attack is in giving you your fills.

So happy for you! Congrats and best wishes for continued progress with the weight loss.

You didn't mention if you were working out. Working out builds muscle which weights more than fat but takes up less space. Several people have posted links to examples of this on YOUTUBE. Are your clothes fitting looser and you're just not see pounds go down on scale?

Took a little vacation last week and first part of this week and was bad. Was out in nature camping and it ate camp food, hotdogs, Beans, cheeseburgers, ALCOHOL . Have not and will not get on the scale to see what injury/damage I've done. Had a wonderful time! I've got a fill scheduled for Monday so I'll find out. Last time at the Doc's I was 185. I hope I haven't gained too much but if I gained a pound or two I'll forgive myself and get back on track. I know that March was pretty much a wash with no weight loss and not sure why cuz I worked my butt off. Will post update Monday. Just wanted to say hi, I'm glad I'm back and need my pals here to help me get back on track.

I HATE milk. I choose a vitimin supplement of calcium w/vitimin D, plus a multivitimin and I eat yougart or hard cheeses everyday. The combination of the three gets me my 100 percent daily requirement for calcium.

Mikee57, Was wondering how your last fill went, did you make it on the fluids for 24 hours then mushy food. If you posted I can't find it

I'm 8 months out from surgery, have had 7 fills and can still gulp Water (Now at 6.8 CC in my band). I can eat bread, but not in the morning and try to stay away from it as it fills me up very fast and keeps from eating my good Proteins. Will occasionally eat half a dinner roll at supper time but I make sure I take little bitty bites and chew it up real good.

Do like 2mf says. I've always been bad too and usually only make it 24 hours on liquid, and sometimes that's a stretch. I have wondered if that's the reason I'm not in my green zone yet with 6.5CC in my band. I have a fill (no. 7) scheduled for Monday and I'm promising myself I'll be good. So you be strong so I can be strong. I'll be looking Monday to see if you made it and how well your feeling any changes to the restriction.

Do your clothes feel looser? When was the last time you weighed? Muscle takes up less space but at the same time your losing fat so you wouldn't expect to gain weight just because you're building muscle I don't think, so you can probably only tell by how your clothes feel.

I'm with healthynewme on this one. The scale affects my mood so until I'm not seeing my doctor every month or six weeks, I'm only weighting in at the Doctors office. Once monthly visits are no longer required, I think I'll only weigh every two weeks or so, but I have hypothyroidism and it makes it a little harder for me to lose the weight, or more time actually so I don't want to get on the scale and not see progress. The way my clothes fit tell me everything I need to know anyway.

Okay, so I've had a few (4-5) episodes of food getting 'stuck' but last night was the absolute worst. I had come home from the Gym where I did a particularly hard work out and the ab workout was Intense. I had eaten lunch at 12:00PM and got home at around 6:30PM. There was no food ready for me to consume so I had to work fast to get myself some heat and serve pulled pork and mixed veggies ready. At 7:00PM I sat down to eat and I was ravenous. Two bites in the pork got stuck. Yes I ate the two bites to fast and the bites were too big. So I stopped eating. That was the most painful experience waiting for that pork to work its way down. Took 40 minutes. By the time it passed through my pouch, I no longer had any desire for that food. I waited another 30 minutes and heated myself up a can of Progresso Light Soup knowing that it would not get 'stuck' since I've been taught that it's basically a slider food. I was wondering how many other people can't continue to eat after having a 'stuck' episode. This is the first time for me. All my other episodes cleared up after 10 minutes or so and I was still hungry so I went back to the same meal. I was wondering to if all my ab exercises prior to the meal had anything to do with it. I will continue to explore that.

I feel ya. Somthing I'm learning very slowly. Chew Chew Chew. But have never been stuck on water yet. You didn't mention what small thing you grabbed to eat. It must have been the food don't you think?

I don't have any problem with flour tortillas. I use them about once every six weeks or so to eat soft taco's. I only use the low carb ones.

Classic!

I use to wait with bated breath for the weekend. All week long I am so good on my diet. but the weekend is a different story. Now, every Friday I start to wonder how good I will be with my diet efforts and tell myself this weekend 'I WILL BE GOOD'. Somehow by Saturday night and definately by Sunday, I'm cheating. Every Sunday I spend with my daughter and granddaughter. We usually spend the day shopping or geocaching or visiting friends but no matter what we do, it always includes lunch. My daughter is overweight too but has no issues with it and has no real desire to lose weight. When we go to lunch invariably I end up eating part of her appetizer which is always something bad and sometimes I order stuff that is a definate no no. Yesterday and Romono encrusted chicken with herb Pasta and a pomodoro sauce. YIKES! I tried to justify it in my mind by only eating about a quarter of the pasta and a little over half of the chicken, but the fried shrimps for the appetizer round I got no excuse for. Luckily I am starting to feel my lapband and it will let me know when I definately can't have anymore, but it still lets me eat more than I should. This is fairly indicative of my weekend behavior and is the main saboteur of my weight loss. Sometimes I sort of hate myself, but I need a good mechanism to help me stop. Anybody got any ideas on how I can control myself.

You'll have to read the label to know the nutritional values. There's a lot of sugar in pulled pork since it's marinating in a barbecue type sauce. As long as you factor the calories into your daily allowance, should be no problem. But, some of the pork are just big chunks and can be dry which can cause a stuck episode. This was not BBQ pulled pork. It was actually pork roast that I turned into pulled pork (no BBQ sauce). It's one of those prepackaged fresh meats served in pastic containers, Hormel, Swanson and a couple of other companys sell them. They are usually located in the fresh meat section around the other processed meats, i.e sauage, sandwich meat. Anyway, not that it matters, just want to clarify that I'm not eating BBQ. Heaven forbid

I can eat bread. I don't eat it very often, but I can. Usually if the bread is soft I will definitely feel it going down, then hit my stoma and I almost instantly am half satisfied. This interferes with my Protein intake so I put the bread away though I do so dearly love it. You are very lucky to have never had a stuck episode. I don't know if it's possible to get to the green zone without ever having one. I just know I've had several stuck episodes and I not quite to the green zone yet. Maybe if tmf sees this, he'll chime in?