JustWatchMe

On full liquids I had an Unjury shake in the morning, and either an Atkins shake or cream soup for lunch, and cream soup for dinner.

Today I had my first solid meal after my second fill. It was in a restaurant, and I fully intended to take most of the meal home, so I went ahead and ordered what I had a taste for. I ordered French onion soup, and a chicken fajita plate. I expected to eat a few sips of the broth followed by the cheese from the soup, and about half of the fajita plate. What actually happened was, I ate the cheese from the soup, and two bites of chicken. I immediately got a soft stop. I was kind of ticked off, because I really wanted to eat some of the fajitas. But then I realized, hey! My band is working! I stopped, asked the waitress for a box, and brought all of the rest of it home. Good thing my daughter likes fajitas. This satiety signal did not happen as suddenly with my first fill. I'm very excited that I might be on the right track, and getting closer to the green zone.

Glad to hear it was a good outcome. Thank you for this important information.

Raise a glass of red wine, Alex! My band won't like the carbonation in the beer! Seriously though, this site is a godsend. Congratulations on its success!

So my two college daughters are home from school, and our family just returned from a two week vacation. I've been doing laundry for three days straight and still going. Today I was carrying two stacked baskets down two flights of stairs. Huffing and puffing and having trouble seeing in front of me. It dawned on me to weigh the baskets. The two baskets together (27.2 lbs) weighed less than half of what I've lost so far (55). That means I'd have to carry four stacked baskets to equal the body weight I carried around only four months ago. This was a real eye opener for me and made me even more grateful for the loss I've had so far. No wonder I feel so much more energy!

I can walk for miles and walk up stairs without getting out of breath and without back pain. I walked my dog in the late afternoon yesterday and my shadow is smaller. No seatbelt extenders on four flights I took this month! I donated five bags of big clothes, including two winter coats, to Goodwill yesterday.

@@2muchfun, let us know how this goes. I had a second fill yesterday of 2.5 bringing me to 7 in my 14cc band. I was worried I might not be able to swallow my Tylenol caplets this morning, but I just did without issues. How big is your band?

Ok, I'm old and married and not in the game anymore, but I have a funny computer dating story. Circa 1979. Freshman year of college. Al Gore had not yet invented the internet. Me, a shy, overweight wallflower sharing a dorm room with a shy, pretty, mousy, serious, petite classmate from my high school. I'm reading the college newspaper and there's an ad in the classifieds for Computer Dating. How exciting! I talked my roomie into trying it with me. We each sent in the five dollars and received a questionnaire by mail. Tons of questions, like what celebrity do you most resemble? I had no clue. I wrote Carol Burnett. Roomie fills hers out with all serious answers and we mail them back. A week or so later, we get a phone call from John and his friend Joe (real names long forgotten). They've been matched with us by the computer dating service and called to see if we were interested in meeting for a double date. John was matched with me, and Joe with my roommate. We all passed the phone around for introductory chitchat and agreed to meet for pizza Friday. Friday we meet two geeky, shy nerds at the pizza place. Talk about awkward. We were all 18 and 19 years old. They were nice enough, and once the ice was somewhat broken, we enjoyed our pizza and beer. You could still drink in Urbana, Illinois at age 18 back in 1979. Once the beer began to flow, so did the confession. Our Computer Dating Service was John and Joe placing a newspaper ad and trolling for dates on campus. I was buzzed enough not to be too insulted. We didn't even think of asking for our five dollars back. The next weekend John called our dorm room. My roomie answered the phone. When I heard her say, "Hi John", I shouted from the bathroom, "I'll be right there!" But John, my computer date, was calling for my roommate, not for me. Alas, I was not the Carol Burnett he had envisioned. My roommate went on one solo date with him, but they were both so painfully shy (and she didn't drink) so it ended there. Gotta give 'em credit for ingenuity.

Aw, this made me tear up. You are beautiful, inside and out, and you are such an encouragement to me. Thank you for all you do on these boards.

Amazing. Thanks for the encouragement!!! Us newbies need to hear it! Beautiful photo!

I try to remember 3-2-1. Three bites protein, two bites veggie, one bite starch. Lather, rinse, repeat.

@@lisacaron, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

I'm not at the green zone yet but I do feel soft stops. IF. Big IF. IF I eat very slowly and chew chew chew and eat small bites. The biggest factor is s l o w l y. Slow it down as much as you can and you may feel the soft stops. If I eat too fast I wipe out what's on my plate and feel the soft stops after the meal is gone. Good lot of help that is, right? Mine are a little burp and/or a small hiccup.

Oh man, my goal clothes are some shorts and shirts from my college years (circa 1980). My daughters wear them now. Of course, they would be considered vintage now. Hope I don't look like a damned fool wearing them again, because I AM going to wear them!

I am 11 weeks post op and had my second fill today. 2.5 added and now I have 7 in my 14 cc band. I love watching the fluoroscope and seeing what the NP sees. She drew a little out, put the Fluid in, had me swallow. I had a little gurgling so she drew some out and had me swallow again. That went through pretty fast so more in, swallow again. Perfect. I'm impressed with the accuracy and thoroughness of this office. Next fill will be 5 - 1/2 weeks from now so I can get an appointment late in the day. Otherwise it would be four weeks. She said the next adjustments will probably be much smaller as we narrow in on my green zone. I'm excited to be on this path and am already reaping the benefits of the weight loss thus far. From two blood pressure meds down to one and maintaining a good BP. Ditched my Prevacid. Ditched my NSAIDs. No more painkillers other than Tylenol for my arthritis. I feel reborn. I lost 4 pounds since my first adjustment a month ago, and two weeks of that was on vacation in Italy. This would have never been possible without the band. At my first fill, I told my NP about this forum and the Big Book of the Lap-Band. Today she thanked me. I told her how checking in here every day of my vacation kept me in touch with my goals and gave me daily support. I suggested she let her patients know about these tools. 48 hours of liquids now as I adjust to my adjustment. Bring it on!

I almost forgot. One thing I do, because I would like a lot of support, is go to support group meetings in the Chicagoland area, even if they are not offered by my own hospital. I make sure that I am only going to the ones that are open to the public. The support group meetings are attended by people who are further along the road and have had the surgeries already. They are also intended to answer any questions for people considering the surgeries. Here again is where you will hear real-life stories, good and bad.

Good luck and keep posting here. My experience was five days of pre-op Clear Liquids diet, followed by six, yes, six weeks of post op full liquid diet. Again, every doctor is different. Keep in mind, that when you hear the term "gas pains" here, they are not talking about abdominal digestive gas pains. People here are talking about a pain that is up in your left shoulder area, sometimes your neck, as I had. For me, it was relieved by someone karate chopping the back of my neck in rapid succession. They did this for me a few times a day. That, and much, much, much walking. Those will help the pain go away from the gas that is trapped inside your body cavity. Gas-X tablets did nothing for me, because it was not digestive gas. That said, I did not have enough pain to make me regret the surgery, by any means. I am extremely thrilled with my progress so far, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I am now 11 weeks post op, I have dropped 55 pounds since my pre op regimen until now, I can walk without pain, and the list goes on and on. In my opinion, the medical staff explains what it can, which are basically the medical procedures that they perform, and the presentations that come through their office. However, if you wish to get real life experiences, and advice, keep coming to this forum, because here is where you will hear the day to day questions and answers and experiences of real people living with the band. One last piece of advice from me. Alex Brecher, the founder of this website, wrote a book called The Big Book of the Lap-Band. Look for it on Amazon or anywhere. I actually saw and read that book before I found this site. It will give you so much helpful and detailed information. Welcome!

@@CarolinaGirl, just what I needed to hear! Headed to my second fill today. The process continues. Have a great day!

Rena, I started pre op weight at 302 and have lost 55 pounds. I got cortisone shots in my knees three times a year and lived on NSAIDs. At 247, I went to Italy with nothing but Tylenol. I walked my butt off on hills and stairs and cobblestones every day for two weeks. Miles and miles every day, several cities. Although my knees hurt by the end of the day, they recovered daily. My feet hurt like hell but also recovered every day. Amazingly, I was not out of breath, and I kept up with our tour guides easily. Just that small amount of weight lost changed my physical abilities. I look forward to how much more I'll be able to do when all the excess weight is gone.

Emotionally controlling, emotionally abusive. We need to get toxic people out of our lives.

I am trying to understand my patterns of emotions with eating. Really examine it and learn. I have known for years that grief will cause me to totally lose my appetite. I literally cannot eat another bite, even mid meal, if I am given bad news, or become suddenly sad. Anger or fear will also stop my appetite cold. This happened to me on a dinner out with my husband this past week. The vacation surroundings were wonderful, the food was perfect, I was hungry and enjoying the food. Then mid meal he started a fight and I completely lost my appetite. I took the rest of the food back to the hotel and gave it to my daughters. Although that loss of appetite was not a revelation to me, it got me thinking about my history of overeating. I truly eat for comfort. I feel such happiness when eating. The comfort feeling is the polar opposite of the feeling in my gut I had during our awful dinner. During anger or fear or sadness, my gut hurts, burns, feels queasy. When I'm overeating I am feeling pleasure and comfort and joy. I don't go to the food right after a negative emotional episode. It's more like the next time I'm in a normal state (the next day or later), I just keep eating to keep the good feelings alive. Of course, with the band I am not overeating as before. I listen to satiety signals and stop. I have a couple of months of good habits under my belt. It's just that I know that unless I uncover the causes and triggers of my overeating, I am doomed to return to it over time. I always thought I overate to feel better. I now think it's more like, I overate to not return to the bad feelings again. To keep the good, normal feelings of this present moment going. It's not an immediate reaction to emotional lows of the earlier moment. I hope this makes sense. I am curious what others have uncovered about their overeating triggers after they stopped overeating. Especially if you've had counseling to help understand it.

Weight returning from Italy for two weeks: 247.4, which is 0.2 less than departure weight. No seatbelt extender on any of the four flights. Walked a million miles (estimate) up and down hills and stairs on cobblestones every day of the vacation. Feel more empowered than ever!!!!

Woo hoo! It was all flight swelling. I weighed myself this morning and I'm exactly what I was on departure. Yay yay yay !!!!!! Back on a structured eating plan with way less bread, oil and pasta, and way more outdoor walking than pre-vacation. I feel revitalized!!! I also woke up at 5am today because my body thinks it's noon. Lol. Watch out world, here I come!!

I gained four pounds in Italy. This weigh in was also after a full day of two flights, and my feet are swollen, so maybe half a pound for swelling. I'm very happy and have no doubt the four will come off quickly since I have a fill Friday followed by two days of liquids. Home sweet home!

The biggest obstacle was my own fear. Second is my husband. Although he did not actively obstruct the process, he has been anywhere from openly critical of WLS to indifferent. I am lucky that we have excellent insurance. I did have to prove my efforts to the psychiatrist by changing my snacking habits before he would sign off, costing me an extra three weeks. That was a wake up call that showed me I had to work at this. My mom and best friend and two daughters are 100 percent supportive, and nobody else knows.