1959JimmyJames

It really sounds like self-sabotage to me. And I'm not saying that to be judgemental - I know where you are coming from. I have sabotaged myself for years prior to the sleeve. I knew going into this surgery that I had issues with food. I abused it and I abused myself with it. So I started counseling 5 months before getting the sleeve because whether or not I was approved for the surgery, I knew my head had to change in order to have any lasting positive results. I am one year out and I'd been seeing my counselor EVERY week since (until she recently moved out of the country). I still feel some of my old issues resurfacing so I'm going to have to find a new counselor. My point is - get some help with these issues. You aren't alone in feeling this way or having these issues with food. But to be successful and, most importantly, not physically hurt yourself, you need to find out why you behave this way and figure out how to love yourself. You are worth the effort to take care of yourself. I honestly do not think I would be were I am without the couseling.

Elaine , Dear...........I am picking up on a couple of things, here. One is that you are having a nice gentle recovery so far, but number two is that you are not taking advantage of it. My doc moved me through the process quickly...soft foods at two weeks and regular but well chewed food at 3 1/2 weeks. But the differences are that you are having issues with volume and with poor choices. I hope you follow up on that reference to the eating disorders doctor so that you can get some clinical help.
Obviously, you're here to ask for advice based on our experiences, so here I go. One of the first and easiest actions you can take is to eat your Protein first. I guarantee that you cannot eat as much roast chicken as you can crisps, but the chicken has nutrients to help your stomach heal. The second thing is that you should not go where the junk is. If it is in your house because you live with unsympatheic people, the you will just have to walk away. I tell myself ALL OF THE TIME things like "Walk away from the cookies" or "Walk away from the ice cream section" Just having positive head talk helps me to fight the sabatoge head talk. So....talking to myself is better than ignoring the fact that some pretty serious surgery has taken place.
Fill your refrigerator with fresh whole foods that did not come from a factory. Eat more yogurt. Batch cook one day a week to have healthy options available all week. Buy cheese that you can cut or eat in one ounce pieces. Boil a dozen eggs. Do whatever you have to do to make nutritious options available. If you take a lunch to work, pack enough for those cravings that hit every time you pass a McDonalds. Instead of pulling in for an Egg McMuffin, you will have some bacon or a boiled egg in your lunch bag, and you can grab that. If I want something sweet, I will have a sugar free lollipop. I bought them in five-pound bags from Candy.com. I also buy bars of dark chocolate and put them in the freezer. When I want something sweet, I crack a piece off and eat it with a fruit flavored Tic Tac. My other sweet treat surprisingly is cherry tomatoes.
You can reach down inside to the clever you that is hiding out, and plan your eating for a few days at a time. I think that planning can be your new best friend for success. If you plan for your Protein and your fluids first, then hopefully you will feel fuller so that you can control your volume of food better. Just as you hopefully would not give a toddler everything it wants to eat regardless of whether or not it would be harmful, you need to be your own parent and ensure your own health and vitality. Plan rewards for yourself at every five pounds your lose. Let it be a book or an item of jewelry or small gadget for the kitchen, or a piece of clothing in a smaller size or a plant for the garden....whatever. Just don't let it be food rewards. I do wish you good luck and good health.

All the rhetoric about eating right, making the right choices.....etc etc etc. are spot on.........But talk is cheap........
If you eat too much, you're gonna bust your staples and die!.........What??? To much reality for you. Then why did you get the surgery. They told you the limitations and hazards before. That's is the very reason why I had the surgery. I always ate too much. I couldn't control it.
Now I always measure my food and don't eat any more than will fit (3 ounces) in my sleeve, or it will burst and I'll die.!!!!
I believe it and I follow that guideline. That's my new control. At least until I lose the weight and and learn and adapt to better and healthier eating habits.
I have listened to all the things people told me I was supposed to do before and it never worked. So I wanted a radical step that would force me to comply. I have had complications from surgeries in the past and I know how bad it can get, so I follow the guidelines to the letter to avoid any problems with my sleeve. And if I do things to cause those problems, I have no one to blame but myself. As was said above, maybe your recovery has been going smoothly and you think you can push the limits without any negative effects......??? With that attitude you could be gambling with your life. You need to get on board with your sleeve and buckle down to what's expected from you. Regret typically comes too late. Good Luck.

There is such a thing as head hunger. We use food to fix all our problems..It does not do it.
I would think about the abuse you are doing to your sleeve. You have not even healed yet. Also whatever you thought would happen it is a tool not a miracle fix. You get the sleeve and that is where the real work begins. This is where you start to learn about your new buddy and feed it properly. The pureed stage is important because it is slowly bringing your stomach back to real food.< /p>
You won't be able to fix your body until you fix your brain and the way you see food. Yes you have a new condition to work with but there will always be something to test our resolve to stay true to the program. Some people never lose the hungry feeling. Some people can eat anything and it does not bother them. That does not mean that you should.
Think about why you did this. Why you wanted to improve your health over all and mark this day and tell yourself you can do this.....
Start logging your intake. Put Protein in the front. ( dense Protein ) when you get back on track. Water 64 oz and then add veggies, fruit and complex carbs. There is no way that a person can eat at your stage what you are eating and not have issues. How you feel about food changes when you change. when you learn what the triggers are for you. When you stop using food as the answer to every situation that does not go well.
Your not alone. We are here and will encourage you to start again at your next meal. There is never failure it is a postponement of sorts. Your sleeve is still there...Use it wisely and fix your thinking.....

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could train ourselves to auto-correct our bad behaviors, before we made a mistake? You know, like typewriters. Both of my grandmothers had typewriters. I remember my Grandma Gwen, typing out letters and invoices for my grandpa’s construction business. I also remember how cool it was that my Grandma Pearl had an electric typewriter. When I was a young teen I was able to use it to retype a letter and it was pretty great.


Back in typewriter days, if you made a mistake you had a few options. 1. You could completely ignore the mistake and act like it didn’t happen at all and then finish your document. 2. You could backspace and X out the wrong word or letter, or 3. You could backspace and type the right letter over and over again until it was darker than the wrong letter. Option 4. was to use erasable typewriter paper – (I think it was called onion skin). If a mistake was made, you could take the paper out – use an eraser to erase the error and then put the paper back in, hoping that everything would line up ok, but often it didn’t.
Then along came the infamous ‘white out’ Great stuff. If you make a mistake, you could use white out to cover it up. At first white out came in a liquid, then correction tape, and eventually some typewriters included a white out key to type over the mistake, like my grandma Pearl’s. I learned quickly how important it was to let the white out dry before starting again to type the right word or letter or it would smear and make a terrible mess.
As we look back, the evolution from typewriter to word processor is truly remarkable. Today, we are fortunate to have word processing programs with spell checkers! Right now I am typing in a Microsoft Word Document. If I make a spelling or a grammatical error – it marks it accordingly. And, it suggests possible corrections. That’s cool. But what is even greater, is the auto-correct feature. I have used this program long enough that now it recognizes some of the words I use often and it automatically completes my words and sometimes my sentences - without me!
What a great feature – auto-correct. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could train ourselves to auto-correct our bad behaviors, before we made a mistake? I personally would love to be able to engage an auto-correct feature that would prevent me from eating the wrong thing or making a bad choice. I think that is possible. Somehow it seems to me that thin people have great control over their auto-correct feature. So how can I?
I suspect that each one of us is at a different point of being able to engage our ability to auto-correct ourselves.Take our eating habits, for example. When we eat the wrong thing, some ignore it and move on. Others try to X it out or cover it up with misplaced beliefs like – if I eat it fast the calories won’t count. As I have thought through this analogy, I have challenged myself and now challenge you to spend some time thinking not just about your mistakes and wrong choices, but more about what you do about it ‘after the mistake has been made and what it might take to activate your own autocorrect feature for next time.
Next time you eat something that you consider a mistake, pause a moment as ask yourself these questions.
1. How did this food get here in the first place? Likely it was a conscious choice when shopping. Auto-correct with more mindful shopping.
2. Was it in-sight or did you have to search for it, deliberately go for it. Auto-correct with out of sight or hard to reach placement.
3. Were you really hungry? Auto-correct with using the HALTS technique. Ask yourself am I Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired or Stresses? Then act accordingly.
3. Was there something else I could have eaten instead? Auto-correct by surrounding yourself with better choices – again that decision is made in advance.
4. So now that you have eaten that cupcake what are you going to do now? Auto-correct by coming to understand your own metabolism and know that if calories went in you need to work them off!
Like you, I have come too far to allow myself to repeat mistakes over and over again without making an effort to understand and correct them. I don’t want to ignore my mistakes or attempt to cover them up, “X” them out, or white wash them. We all make mistakes, but we also all have the ability to mindfully engage our own auto-correct feature. Here’s to lessons from a typewriter!

I am finally getting the band removed and the sleeve procedure done. I have wanted this for a couple years and I was never able to get it done for many reasons. Mostly insurance issues and moving and changing jobs. But after 2 denials I finally got approved after I appealed it myself. My surgery is may 8 th and I couldn't be more excited and nervous at the same time.

I had my revision surgery lap band to sleeve 4/10. I'm down 23 lbs.

Turn off the television.

Even if you're only a day post-op you know the surgery is not cheating. here's for a response to those who think we simply need diet, exercise and discipline -- and not that we need all that and more post surgery.
Check out I Am Not a Cheater - and feel free to share it with your friends.

oh man, you guys have just given me some hope. please say a prayer for me that my dr will work with me and my insurance to get this done and ins will pay for procedure. i need this so much. i did everything i was told to try and save this band but it didn't work and my heart just broke. i go wednesday so hoping and praying for a good outcome.

Hello- I had my band since 2008 and had it removed Monday 4/14 - surgery was 7:30 am and i was released at 10:30 am...never needed a pain pill and was back to work on Wed. It really was amazingly easy & painless. My sleeve is scheduled for 5/19..My doctor will not do both at the same time..he feels the stomach needs time to heal and reshape itself in order to get the best possible sleeve and reduce risks of leaks etc.so he requires a 5-6 week waiting period ..I have read about some dr's who require an even longer waiting period - 3 to 6 months . I just wanted to tell you about my experience so you are not surprised or disappointed if your dr will not do both at one time...I was disappointed at first, but after some research I understand his reasoning & feel the waiting will be worth it .. Best of luck to you!

I had my band for 3 1/2 yr and it slipped. Tried conservatively to fix it until it finally herniated and had to come out. Had my revision 9 mths ago (bmi was 28). But my insurance paid for it cuz it was a complication. Had it done in 1 surgery. Had a rougher recovery cuz it took my dr an extra 30 mins to dig my band outa my stomach. Felt like I was run over by a semi for about 2 weeks. The bottle of liquid Vicodin was my best friend for about 12 days.
While I've heard that leaks happen more with revision than virgin sleevers, the occurrence is still really low. My dr told me that 98% of leaks happen the first week, after that they r extremely rare. I was so paranoid the first week. Every little pain I thought I had a leak. In fact, on day 5 I ended up in the ER for fear I had a leak. Turned out to be an allergic reaction to Reglan.
I'm now 9 mths out and haven't even thought about a leak since the first month. While I still have about 10 lbs to goal, I've been maintaining for about 5 mths - so I'm so happpy I had it done. Had I just had my band removed, I would've gained it all back. I know it.
Good luck. U have a better chance of getting in a car accident on ur way to the hospital than getting a leak. Plz don't sweat it. So very rare....

I had no complications going from Lap-band to sleeve. The procedure was done in one surgery and I had two days hospital stay. My doctor told me the chances of a leak are highest when your stomach is healing but the percentage is very low. Any time later, the doctor stated is theoretically possible but the chances are miniscule. Of course if any complications happen to you it's 100% chance, as I've read in this forum.
My surgery was 4 1/2 weeks ago, I'm eating soft food, and following instructions. I am very happy with my progress and would do this again.
Best of luck to you.

My sincere suggestion is to get through the emotional stuff before your surgery. Delay surgery if you need to. This isn't a sure-shot way to be thin and healthy... You have to work at it very hard and if you don't stick to the plan you can and WILL make yourself very sick.
To answer your question though, a sleeve feels like someone replaced your stomach with a two year old's stomach. Thirsty? Don't guzzle Water.... That won't work. Hungry? (I never lost the hunger part post op) well, don't eat too fast or too much because you will HATE yourself when your stomach is too full. Feeling like you have no energy? You probably screwed up and haven't been taking your Vitamins. Want a pop? Beer? Bummer, because that has carbonation and will stretch your sleeve. Want some Pasta or chips? Well good luck eating something so low in Protein and so high in calories and still making your calorie and Protein goals for the day -- not gonna happen!
I want to reiterate that It is a LOT of work! You HAVE to be ready mentally. But man, if you stick to the plan, it is a crazy effective tool. Would I do it again? Yes..., a hundred times over. But my husband is overweight and he is considering surgery. He still struggles with being able to say no to candy sweets pop and beer. Until he can get his head in the game, I am going to try to talk him out if surgery every time.
I sincerely wish you luck.

Well, I'm 11 mos. out from my revision surgery and I can say it has been totally worth it!!!! I'm 15lbs away from my personal goal and 23lbs from my 100% weight off (Dr. Goal). It's said that sleeves can lose 50-70%of total weight needed to lose and I'm already there. I truly think it's about following the plan and embracing the change. Yes, at times the weight coming off has been slow (especially since month 6) but I'm still dropping. I'm happy it's been slow because my skin has toned up better than this 46 y/o gal expected. :-) best of luck to us all!!!

I am about 3 weeks behind you AuntieLala83. My surgery was on march 17th and as of today I am down 33 lbs. Congratulations to us and keep it up.

I was banded 2005 had my revision 4/9/2014 and is down 15 pounds...i have no appetite and I try to walk 20 min a day everyday... Good luck

I had my revision Feb 25, 2014 and I've lost 47 lbs in those 7 weeks. Feeling great!

Great comment. Your experience will help somebody with their decision. Mine was a little bit more painful and I was in the hospital longer, but we are all different. I am retired so I don't have to worry about going to work. I do have little kids to help take care of and they keep us busy. I am a little over 5 weeks post-op now. I am eating a normal diet again, but I can't eat much. I can really feel when I am getting too full. It is a very uncomfortable feeling. I still do lots of liquids like Soup broth. It is nice to not feel that plugged up feeling from the band anymore. Take care and good luck to you.

Great comment. Your experience will help somebody with their decision. Mine was a little bit more painful and I was in the hospital longer, but we are all different. I am retired so I don't have to worry about going to work. I do have little kids to help take care of and they keep us busy. I am a little over 5 weeks post-op now. I am eating a normal diet again, but I can't eat much. I can really feel when I am getting too full. It is a very uncomfortable feeling. I still do lots of liquids like Soup broth. It is nice to not feel that plugged up feeling from the band anymore. Take care and good luck to you.

Hi Misfitn2014, I am a Texas girl too. I had my surgery on April 16th at 4:00 in the afternoon and I was released at 3:20 the next day. I was up walking the halls by 7 that night. I was sleepy the first couple of days,, but by the third day I was doing pretty good. The third day after surgery was my daughter's senior prom, so was up helping her get ready and then went to the pre-party with all the other parents taking pictures. I was socializing and taking pictures, no one at the party had any idea I had anything done. I didn't tell them either, later when I get more comfortable with things. The parents all decided to go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant, so my husband and I went too. I order a cup of tortilla Soup, an just spooned out the broth. Everyone was socializing and having a great time so no one was paying attention to me. I felt like I handled everything great, and was pleased that I was doing so well.

I had sugery 5 weeks ago, today. I week prior to surgery the doctor went over the entire surgical plan with me. He has been doing this a long time. He did my band 10 years ago. He said that he has never had a patient experience any problems by doing both procedures at the same time. His main concern was if there were complications that made the surgery last too long then he would have to decide if he would stop at a good spot, and then finish with the sleeve at a later date. Being under anesthesia for too long isn't good for you. My surgery took 4 hours. He removed the band, did the sleeve procedure and repaired a hiatal hernia. Around the 5th day post-op, I started feeling pretty good. I feel great now, and I am glad it was all over in one visit. Good luck to you.

Kudos to you for that major weight loss. That is quite an accomplishment. I don't recall anyone on this forum judging anyone for what they have eaten or not eaten. I don't really believe there are any perfect people on this forum as we're all human and prone to make errors on a daily basis. Each one of us approaches our weight loss struggles in our own unique and individual ways. Most of the posts on here are just asking for support and clarification on diet delimmas. We can't fault people for that now can we? Some people can lose weight without ever weighing and counting or measuring and I'm happy for them but not all people can do it that way. Those of us that have to measure and count do so because that is what works for us. Many of us that had the Gastric Sleeve surgery didn't have problems losing weight in the past. Our problem was that we would gain as soon as we got off the diet which caused the yoyo problems of bad health. We're not dieting, we just changed our food lifestyle and this is our new normal. We too are using our expensive tool to keep us on track. Because we choose to do it differently does not make us wrong. In fact, the medical community encourages our methods over the one you have chosen. Either way, I wish you much luck and continued success.

Seems like about 75% of people who post here are perfect. They eat 60gms of Protein, veggies and barely any carbs at all. They drink the allotment of Water, they exercise 60 mins a day 6x a week. They never, ever eat pizza, burgers, sandwiches, or tacos. All they eat is grilled fish, grilled chicken, and maybe an occasional steak (when they're being BAD).
They count all carbs, calories, and fat grams. They measure and weight everything. chocolate shall never pass their lips. They comment on the reason that ur in a stall is becuz ur not being "perfect" and counting everything. Maybe u ate 4 oz of fish when u should have only had 3 oz.
If everyone here is so perfect and no one ever eats "junk", then why did they need wls in the first place? If they were so proficient in weighing, measuring, and counting, why have major surgery to limit their amount of intake? They judge those who eat an occasional piece of pizza, saying they will always be fat if they continue on the path of gluttony.
I have now lost almost 100 lbs, wth 11 to go to goal. I have not counted, measured, or weighed anything. I use my over $20,000 tool to guide my eating, telling me when I've had enuf. I've heard that I will never be able to keep it off, eating whatever I want, not "dieting" forever. I had wls so I'd never have to diet again. I wouldn't have had major surgery if I wanted to continue dieting. Now don't get me wrong. I don't eat unlimted amounts of burgers, tacos, pizza, and Cookies. I eat very little. The beauty of the point of my $20,000 tool.
So those of u who eat perfectly, exercise all the time, and have all the answers: kudos to u. A lot of work and ucomfortableness to not use ur pricey tool. I write this while eating 6 (yes, 6 WHOLE eggs) white chocolate Cadbury mini eggs. Gasp. If I do (occasionally) count my calories it's always under 1,000. I mean how many calories can u eat by listening to ur egg size tummy?
Now, if someday I start gaining because of my "irresponsibility" then I may start counting calories or weighing my food. But until then, I think I will trust my tiny tummy to tell me when I've had enuf.
Anyone else tired of perfect people?

So you're upset about "only" losing 50 pounds in 2 months?!? Unfortunately I can't give you any suggestions, because I don't see the problem. You should be happy and proud of your success. And your doctor should go pound sand.