JustWatchMe

Yep. If I want to keep losing. Don't get me wrong. My eating got sloppy around the one year mark. I was eating greasy fried food and carbs and buckets of movie crapcorn. And drinking wine. And I started to gain again. So I got serious, cleaned up the food, planned and tracked my portions, dumped the alcohol and carbs, and lost what I gained and got back on track. With smaller portions, my band once again felt tighter. So now I have to chew well and eat small bites or I'll get stuck. But don't kid yourself. Eating around the band is very possible and the bigger your meals get the more used to it you get. The good news is that the reverse is also true. I am very grateful for my band and that I learned this lesson early without too much wasted time or without stretching out my insides and causing a slip. The better I adhere to the rules the easier it gets. The more exceptions I make, the harder it is to get back on track. Good luck! JustWatchMe

Lol Julie! Ok I'll post. I haven't seen my surgeon's office (NP) since September 2015. Back then the NP and I decided I would get my food cleaned up and see if that brought some restriction instead of getting another tiny fill. Well it sure did. Here's my dilemma. I'm doing great. I only get stuck if I eat too fast or don't chew well. It does happen about once a week. Since I saw her last, I've lost about 24 pounds. I have great restriction. I really don't "need" an appointment but I feel like I should go and just get checked with the fluoro. Especially since I'll be losing my excellent insurance soon with the divorce finalizing in the next couple of months, and after that, visits will be out of pocket since the doctor is not in the new insurance's network. So, I should go, right? Feels weird because it's like tempting fate. JustWatchMe

Hannah, I'm so sorry. Be very gentle with yourself. ((Hugs)) JustWatchMe

That is, today I am not obese. At least according to the BMI charts. Two years post LapBand. My ultimate goal is to achieve a normal BMI. I don't know if I'll ever get there, but I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. I think the last time I was at this weight was 1992. JustWatchMe

Since I dropped the first hundred pounds, I have been wearing a body shaper every day. I was worried that I was going to be too miserable to wear it all summer. Well, I feel naked without it, and I have worn it every single day this summer so far. Nobody is more surprised than me that I am not hot and miserable. I'll take it! JustWatchMe

I am so sorry for you. Yes our pets give us unconditional love, and they hold such a special place in our lives. Please be gentle with yourself going through this tough time. The decision is hard to make but your heart will know when. ((Hugs)) JustWatchMe

OP here. I received a post notification that someone replied to this old post. I just want to happily report that I've kept my food clean since I wrote this over six months ago, and slowly have dropped 20 pounds in that time. It's a marathon, not a sprint. My band is optimally filled. If I don't chew well, I get stuck. So I've decided to chew well. Lol. Good choices and daily accountability to my OA sponsor are getting me closer to goal. Only 30 pounds to a normal BMI. I should make an appointment to have my band checked since I haven't seen my NP in 10 months! It's all good. JustWatchMe

I've been getting tiny fills now and then over the last year. Four fills of 0.10, with my last one in August. I debated getting one in September but my NP and I decided together to try modifying my food plan and waiting to see those results. Well, I'm a stubborn old broad, and I resisted making serious changes right away. But here's what I did change over the last four months: I gave up alcohol completely in September. I gave up fried food in November. I gave up my weekly carby Thai overindulgence in December. Do I miss it? Hell yes. I gave up movie crapcorn completely in December. (Not movies though. I actually smuggled two pears into the movies a few days ago and got a little thrill out of that.) I began planning, committing, and tracking my food to my OA sponsor and using MyFitnessPal again two weeks ago. What happened? My band is talking to me again. I feel the stop signals very clearly now. I get the "enough" sensation on much smaller quantities. My dog is loving it because he gets the p rotein I can't finish. Bottom line is, I had to clean up my food for my band to be able to do its job right. I'm filled enough. I know that now. The band surgery alone enabled me to drop 2/3 of my excess weight without much behavior modification. Sure, I was eating less, and not eating between meals. But I was emotionally hanging on to my greasy, fried favorites and drinking with friends every weekend, not to mention socking away tubs of buttered crapcorn on a twice-weekly basis. And scratching my head as to why I stopped losing weight. Making the changes I made above was an incremental process. I wasn't ready to do it until I was ready to do it. I'm really glad that my band stayed consistent while I floundered around figuring this out. For whatever reason, I'm now motivated to get the rest of this weight off, and to follow the disciplined plan I have worked out with my OA sponsor. This may or may not help somebody else. But if you're chasing the elusive green zone, and wonder if you really need more fills or not, see if cleaning up your food for a few weeks first makes a difference. It did for me.

I started a twice-daily text to my OA sponsor 7 months ago. My food has been clean since I started that. I also weigh daily. When I wasn't doing these things, I easily slipped into denial and watched the scale number creep up. I've slowly lost 24 pounds doing this and have 36 pounds left to goal. I'm 2 years post LapBand. JustWatchMe

I'm not in the same boat, but I just wanted to wish you the best and tell you that your post is full of hope and inspirational. I'm rooting for you!! JustWatchMe

A theme I am learning this month: acceptance doesn't mean I like or approve of what's happening. It just means I'm not fighting against reality. I accept that what is, is. I can only control my response. Thank you for your thoughtful post. Hugs to you at this sad time. JustWatchMe

I am sorry for your loss. Please take gentle care of yourself. JustWatchMe

Awesome!!! You rock!!! JustWatchMe

Daisee, you're beautiful! JustWatchMe

((Hugs )) to Lisa. Next time somebody even implies that WLS is the easy way out, I'm gonna strangle 'em. JustWatchMe

Following this thread because my right knee is shot. I'm down to 179 pounds and still need cortisone shots every four months in the right knee (I was able to stop the left). I'm on no NSAIDs and no other painkillers except Arthritis Tylenol. Still can't do a bicycle. The right knee can't do the up-bend. I tried yoga last year with comical results. Trying to hold a pose with the sound of machine-gun fire coming from my knees caused me to bust out laughing. I didn't go back. Im very encouraged to hear that reaching my goal weight of 145 might make a further difference. I've lost 120 so far. JustWatchMe

A favor please. Can you post a link to the forum we're talking about? I lose track of these unless I respond to them frequently. I went a little crazy a few months ago subscribing to just about every thread that I liked, and it got so overwhelming with notifications that I stopped using the app completely for a while. So now I only check a couple of specific threads every few days. But I'd love to post in the vets forum again. JustWatchMe

Well now you all know what I will click on. JustWatchMe

I thought this was going to be a constipation thread. Thanks for the laugh. JustWatchMe

Simple. Smash them up except for five chips and flush the crumbs. Put the almost-empty bag back where he left it. When he finds five chips left and asks you about it, just say, "I couldn't help myself. They were right there in front of me. I wish I had never seen them. I sure hope I don't get sick from those chips." Lather, rinse, repeat. JustWatchMe

Most people at work don't know I have LapBand. Those are the ones who ask: "How much have you lost?" "I don't generally discuss the numbers. I keep it private." "But it must be a lot! How much?" "Yes, it was a lot." "No, really, how many pounds? 30?" "A bit more than that." (I had lost 120 the last time I was asked this last week in the ladies' room.) "Gotta run! Bye!" JustWatchMe

I'm in. JustWatchMe

I told myself that the damage I was doing to my body would go away whenever I finally got thin. Well, some did. Not all. Joints are badly damaged, high blood pressure still needs meds, and loose skin will never snap back. JustWatchMe

I hope she's okay. I stopped checking the forum when the notifications got fried. It became too difficult to keep up without them. I have them working again but I basically just check this thread a couple times a week. JustWatchMe

Beautiful!!! JustWatchMe