Fanny Adams

Well the time has come... My ticker said "you have not updated in 80 days..." this morning, so it was time to bite the bullet and acknowledge what I have been in denial about since my surgery. I have GAINED 5kg since the operation - that's 12lb!! No, I can't put it down to swelling anymore, no I can't put it down to fluid rentention or any of the other excuses I've been trying on for the last 2 months. Plain and simple, I'VE BEEN EATING TOO MUCH!!! After having the band really tight to get to my pre-op desired weight and being very uncomfortable for that, I wussed out when the surgeon went to refill me and asked for the fill to be less than his recommendation. Of course, I didn't consider the fact that their office is booked out months in advance and that I wouldn't be able to change things easily if I wasn't happy with the result. Well of course, the inevitable happened. The operation swelling went down within a week or two of the fill and the hunger came raging back with a vengeance. It took me 6 MONTHS to lose that last 5kg before the operation and a mere 6 WEEKS to put it back on. GAH!! I could kick myself!! What's worse is that, now that my skin is so tight, it is REALLY uncomfortable and I'm all bulgy and have lumps and bumps in odd places. I feel like a sausage that's about to split its skin and I hope I haven't already stretched out my new tight-fitting skin *cries* I've been struggling through, thinking that it will get better when I get my next fill (22nd Feb - not far now, thank goodness!), but I've finally realised that this is the wrong attitude. I need to do something about this RIGHT BLOODY NOW!!! So... for the next week at least, until I get the fill, I'm going right back to basics - back to the original pre-op diet for the band!! Yes folks, that means I'm doing the Optifast thing and I'm hoping that by posting this and making it public, I will STICK to it for the whole week! Wish me luck!

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this and this is my theory also. Surgery of any kind is generally a big decision for a person and comes with a lot of emotional attachments. People want to believe that they have made the right choice for themselves and, for many, supporting someone in having chosen a different type of surgery is tantamount to admitting that their own choice wasn't right. To be honest, I feel the same about lapband surgery and the alternatives. While I might try to be supportive of someone's decision to have gastric bypass or the DS, deep down inside, I know that I would believe that they have chosen a dangerous and unnecessarily drastic option. I know that what I "should" be saying is "lapband was the right choice for me, you make whatever is the right choice for you" but what I'd really be thinking is "OMG, don't do it!!" if they said they were having the bypass or even the vertical sleeve.

Obese people have all sorts of emotional connotations attached to the word "diet", so you'll hear many people saying that you don't need to diet with the band. The truth is, if you want to lose quickly, good old-fashioned diet and exercise are the best ways to do it. The difference now is that the band helps to control the Hunger Daemon that rages inside all of us, so that we can actually STICK to the diet week in and week out for the long haul needed to lose all the weight. Yes, you can lose slowly if you don't consciously diet, provided that you make reasonably sensible food choices. The restricted portions will allow you to eat pretty much anything in moderation and the scales will still slide slowly down. However, if you allow too much junk to creep into those restricted portions, you can stall your progress or even gain weight. The key word there is "IN MODERATION". If you want to lose quickly though, pay attention to what you eat, count your calories, do the exercise and let the band (wonderful invention that it is!) HELP you to achieve success. I think that one of the best things about the band is it's flexibility. You can control how quickly or slowly you lose. When you get to goal, you can let go of all that focus on "dieting" and live like a "normal" person. That means that, like normal people, you need to keep a general eye on what you eat and try not to overindulge too often, but can get away with treats now and then and not have to worry about binge eating or rollercoaster weight gains and losses. Good luck!!

Congratulations to all new members of the 100lb Down Club!!

I know how you feel. I've come from an Aus size 26 (US 22) to an Aus 12 (US 8), had plastic surgery to get rid of the skin rolls and lift the boobs and what size compression garment does the nurse fit me for? A freakin siz 2XL!!! 2XL!!! I cried! As it turned out, it was pretty loose once the swelling had gone down but even so! I think I look pretty good now. I want to lose another 5-10kg but most people tell me I don't need to. Yet, I'm still classified as "overweight" on the BMI charts and by society's standards, I'm still fat *sighs*

Firstly, congratulations on the weight loss! You've done great already and should be very proud of yourself. However, you're right in that vomiting once or twice a week isn't a good long term situation. Given that most of the time, you are okay with foods, I'd have to agree with you that it isn't the band; it is most likely making "mistakes" when eating, e.g. eating too fast, not chewing well enough. Here are some tips that have really helped me, when I've been unsure about bite sizes, speed of eating, chewing, etc: * Cut all your food into TINY pieces - about the size of your pinky fingernail, then chew each piece to liquid before swallowing. * Don't cut up all your food in advance at the beginning of the meal. Cut one tiny piece off, put it in your mouth, put the knife and fork down, chew and swallow, cut the next piece, and so on. This gives you time between each bite to listen to your body and consider how each bite is going down. * Don't worry about quantities so much, just eat like that for 20 minutes then STOP. Cover what's left of your food and put it in the fridge. * After an hour, think about whether or not you're still HUNGRY. If you are really hungry, eat the rest of your meal in the same way (small bites, rest in between). If not, discard the food or save it up for your next meal. * Don't try to eat until you feel "FULL". The sensation of "FULL" has changed now and it can be hard to recognise. Instead, aim for "not really hungry". If you're not really hungry, you can stick to making good choices for what you do eat and can resist snacking between meals. If your snacking is mostly done out of boredom not hunger (like mine), try to find something to occupy your mouth with, e.g. sugarfree sweets or gum (being careful not to swallow gum!). Hope this helps!

It sounds like you have good restriction and now the "bandster rules" are really kicking in. If you are still getting mushies and liquids down, you may not be too tight but are finally feeling what "restriction" is really like. It's something that you hear and read about a lot at the beginning but can't really "get" until you experience it for yourself. Try giving yourself a day's rest on just mushies and liquids, to make sure that any swelling from previous "stuck" episodes has gone down, then start to introduce meats and solid foods slowly. You need to cut your meat into TINY bites - about the size of your pinky fingernail - and chew until liquid. Pause for a few seconds between each bite and listen to your body. Don't take the next bite until you are sure the first one has gone down. One way to achieve the right "pace" when eating is to not cut up all your meat in advance. Cut a tiny piece and put it in your mouth, then put your knife and fork down while you chew and swallow; pick up the knife and fork and cut the next piece, etc. This gives you time between each bite to feel the results and determine if it is safe for another bite. If you still get stuck on meat and solid foods when eating in this way, then it is time to think about maybe you are too tight. If that's the case, don't let it go on too long. It is a miserable way to live and can be very damaging to your health long term.

At only a month post-op, you are still swollen inside from the operation. It can take 6 weeks or more for that swelling to completely subside, so you may start to see the weight loss in your waist soon.

Often when people say "I don't have restriction", what they really mean is "I still feel hungry" but they're not actually the same thing. If you are getting stuck often, you DO have restriction - otherwise you couldn't get stuck. However, you may well still be feeling hungry all the time, and so not realise what is happening. In fact, you may already be too tight and this is causing the getting stuck and throwing up, etc. When you have restriction, you need to take TINY bites, about the size of your pinky fingernail, and chew each one to liquid before swallowing. Too much at once or not enough chewing will get stuck and cause problems. When you get stuck and start to throw up, your stomach will swell up, making the restriction even tighter and it will get harder and harder to eat solid foods. However, because you are not eating solid foods, you will still feel hungry all the time and want to eat! When you get stuck a lot, you tend to avoid the foods that give you trouble and stick to "slider" foods like icecream, Cookies, chips and chocolate. Slider foods do exactly that - they slide straight through the band, leaving your pouch empty and you feeling hungry again very quickly. It can easily become a vicious cycle - you are tight or swollen from throwing up, so you eat slider foods, leaving you hungry. You are hungry, so you want to eat more but can't because you're too tight... The way out of this loop is to give your stomach at least a day's rest to recover from any PBing. Go onto "liquids only" for at least one day. Try creamy Soups with lots of Protein to help you feel full - have as much as you like but no solids. On the second day, eat mushies, taking care to take tiny bites and chew thoroughly. Again, don't worry about quantities - choose high protein, low fat/low cal mushies and eat as much as you want but concentrate on taking it slowly and NOT getting stuck. On the third day, introduce solid foods again, choosing things like tender lean meats and cooked veges. Be even more careful to cut your food into tiny pieces, eat tiny bites, chew each one at least 30 times, pause for a little while between each swallow and see how you are feeling. If you do get stuck and start to PB, go back to liquids for the rest of the day and try again tomorrow. You should find that you are able to eat solid foods in this way without getting stuck. Solid foods, eaten the right way, will sit in your pouch and stop you feeling hungry. If you can't manage solid foods at all after several days of trying this routine, you are too tight and need some Fluid taken out. You only need a fill when eating solid meals of protein and veges still leaves you hungry and wanting to snack between meals or eat lots more than a cup at at sitting.

Congrats, MaggiesMom and Blaze! Feels good, doesn't it?

Many of us go through a "my God, what have I done?" phase immediately after surgery. Hang in there, think positive thoughts and you'll find that in a few months, you'll almost certainly be one of the happy bandsters saying "Best thing I ever did!" Have a look through some of the "Would you do it again?" polls. You'll find an overwhelming majority of people saying "YES, YES, YES!!" in response to that question and you can't get a much better recommendation than that. The first few weeks are an emotional rollercoaster, mixed with all sorts of physical changes (surgery, anaesthetic, new diet, changed sleep patterns, changed exercise patterns, etc, etc) that impact upon your head space. It will take some time to settle down but it will be worth it in the long run.

Ladies, for those of you having trouble with the taste or texture when swallowing, the secret is to push him down as far to the back of your throat as you can stand and swallow rapidly, when he's cumming. Not only does this mean that the fluids go right past your tastebuds, so you don't taste or feel it, but your man will think he's died and gone to heaven when he feels the back of your throat tightening around him as you swallow. Believe me, you'll both thank me for this tip :eek: I've never had a problem with my band related to swallowing and I have to wonder what sort of consistency would actually cause problems! Getting HIM to drink more fluids sounds like one possible solution but make sure that the Fluid isn't beer. Beer and cigarettes WILL make it taste nasty, no doubt about that. pineapple juice can help but it can't disguise it completely if he's a beer drinker

My apologies, Bushidomaster. My "lol rofl" was in response to the woman getting her knickers in a knot over a topic that she doesn't need to read if she doesn't want to, not in response to your post. I hadn't seen the extra posts past hers and by the time I realised my error, it was too late to go back and edit in the quote to make it more clear.

I can't really answer that, Tracey, coz I only did it one way, so have no basis for comparison. I did 3 shakes a day plus steamed green veges only at dinner. The first couple of days were definitely the hardest and the green veges at night really helped. I was only on it for 10 days, as my surgeon had a last minute cancellation and moved my surgery date up and that's all the notice I got. I think I lost 5 kilos in 10 days (might have been 7 - it's been a few years now, so I'd have to go look it up). PS: Do you mean Boyanup? Coz I don't know where Boya is!

*hugs* Hang in there, Allie! Tomorrow will be a brand new day :biggrin:

Aww... I didn't see this in time to vote in the poll (I have notifications turned off). I'm in the 110-119lb lost group and have been doing really well. Had an unfill for my plastic surgery in December (op was on 7 Dec, just 3 days shy of my Bandiversary on the 10th) and managed to gain a whole kilo in the week leading up to the op (rats!). Got refilled 2 weeks after the op but was chicken and didn't put enough in, so have been hanging out until my next fill in February to hopefully get back to my sweetspot. Meantime, it's taking all the willpower I possess to simply maintain and not gain further. I'm not really sure whether I have or not. I came out of hospital 2kg heavier than when I went in, even though the doc cut off 4kg of skin and fat! At the time, I put it down to swelling (LOTS of swelling, LOL!) but I don't know if that still applies. The visible swelling has gone down slowly but I think I'm replacing it with fat, as my weight hasn't changed - still 2kg over the op day... Can't wait for the next fill as I have nearly 10kg I still want to lose to get to my dream goal, and then I am DONE!! I could live at my current weight forever and still be happy but why stop now, when I am so close to the dream? Hope everyone else is having fun and maintaining their successes! Cheers all!

Bill, have you found that people who know about your wife's surgery but don't know about yours have become even more judgemental of her now? I would be worried about people making the comments "Look, HE was able to do it all on his own, so SHE should have been able to, too!" I can understand people wanting to keep this private, when they've had such negative feedback from people around them. I guess I've been extremely lucky, in that I've had nothing but support from my wonderful family. I also tell anyone who even hints at asking, because I want to spread the message. I get quite evangelistic about it, LOL! I actually have to restrain myself from running up to obese people in shopping centres and taking them by the hand to say, "Please let me tell you about this wonderful tool!" The main thing that stops me is remembering how humiliated I would have felt if some stranger had done that to me when I was obese .

Congrats Jill! It feels great, doesn't it?

Lol!! Rofl!

Hi again, Very. It's good to hear that everything went well with your banding. I'm sure the nausea will settle down soon but it may actually be a good sign! Restriction is a very individual thing and some people need a lot of Fluid in their band, while others need very little, in order to feel it. Some have even never felt the need for a fill at all! Nausea is pretty common for the first couple of weeks but if yours goes on for longer, it may mean you won't need much in the way of fills to get to your sweet spot. One thing the band will do for you is to teach you to LISTEN to your body. Don't be in a rush to get fills just for their own sake. Listen to the demands your body is making and, if you're hungry, by all means get filled, but if not, let it ride for a while longer. Regarding liquids with meals: There are two reasons why we are told to avoid drinking with our meals. Firstly, if you don't have much restriction yet, the Water will wash the food through the opening quickly, leaving your pouch empty and reducing the effectiveness of the band. Secondly, if you DO have good restriction, the water can fill your pouch and not leave much room for food. If you are tight and something gets stuck, DO NOT try to wash it through with water - almost always, the water will just come straight back up again...ew... White breads are usually one of the hardest things to eat when you are quite restricted. What happens is that, no matter how well you chew the bread, it can still glug back together to make a kind of glue in your stomach (ever made paste glue from flour and water as a kid?) and plug up the opening. Multigrain breads are easier or toasting the bread can help. I find I avoid white carbs (white breads, refined rice, pastas) when I am restricted and that is a good thing - lots of calories for not much nutrition! However, at the moment, I'm still getting back to my sweet spot after my PS surgery and I can easily eat a whole sandwich! (LOL - it would have been 3 whole sandwiches a couple of years ago!) My personal sweetspot point is where I can eat small amounts of anything I want, if I take it slowly and carefully but foods like bread and Pasta are usually too much trouble so I avoid them. That's still such an odd thing for me to say given that I practically lived on sandwiches and various pastas before being banded. You don't have to miss out on anything at the right restriction level - you still get to taste it, you just don't get to scoff down the whole thing (like I used to...)

Tweety, the first 3-4 days on the shakes ARE hard but I promise you that it DOES get better. Starting at around Day 4, the hunger fades, they shakes/fuzzy head clear up and the whole thing becomes more manageable. Hang in there for just 2 more days and you will be through the worst of it and sailing for the finish line. Keep your eye on the prize!

I think we all have the fear that it won't work for us. Like pdmarkle and cocoabean pointed out, if we hadn't previously tried and failed at many diets, we probably would never have considered anything as drastic as surgery. I won't lie and say that it is guaranteed to work for everyone. There are a number of people here who have not been happy with their results, but the VAST majority of people have been successful and have never regretted making this decision. The same cannot be said for any other weightloss method - diet and exercise alone is notoriously unsuccessful in the long run, as we all well know... In my humble opinion, there is no better option out there for safe, steady LONG TERM weight loss. That being said, you do need to understand that it isn't magic and the tool DOES require hard work from you, in order to get the best results. You've said you can follow a plan - excellent! This tool will give you the edge you need to STICK to your plans long term and achieve the results you want. My best advice to you is to read, research and ask questions over and over until you really feel you understand how the band works and how to make it work for you. Most people in here are happy to answer questions, but you will also find that most questions have already been asked and answered over and over, so invest a little time in learning how to search threads for topics of interest before re-posting the same questions again. Good luck with everything! Feel free to PM me if you want to ask about anything...

I hope it all went well, Barbee, and that you have smooth sailing for your recovery time! Good luck from DownUnder!!

Hi Alli, I hope everything went well and your recovery is swift and as painfree as possible! Cheers from DownUnder!

If you are allowed steamed green vegetables, which most pre-ops allow (i.e. no starchy veges), one tip that helped me was to "practice eating like a Bandster". Even though it wasn't necessary, I practiced cutting up my food into the smallest possible pieces (e.g. no bigger than your thumbnail) and then chewing everything thoroughly to liquid, resting 30 secs between bites, etc. It was a good learning curve, gave me time to really savour the food that I was allowed and drew out the meal time for ages, which actually helped to make me feel satisfied on the small amounts.