Fanny Adams

Yes, from the chemist but shop around. I've seen prices range from $40 a box to $55! I didn't ask about the Tony Ferguson ones, and just went with the Optifast. I can't find the dietary information on the Tony Ferguson shakes (even on his website!) but I believe they are higher in sugar and carbs than the Optifast, which is quite probably why they apparently taste a lot better, heheh! There are a lot more choices with TF, but the better taste may also mean that they don't work quite as well in shrinking the liver.

General comment, not directed at anyone in particular: You know every time one of us hides the fact that we've had WLS and passes off our weight loss as the result of willpower, diet and exercise alone, we reinforce the concept in other people's minds that the surgery is the "easy way out". The more successful we are in losing weight, the more other people will think "Hey, I know someone that dropped a ton of weight and they did it all by themselves, so that just proves that anyone can do it if they try!" We have all come down the hard road of trying and failing at that approach, leading us to make this decision to have the surgery, so why are so many of us actively working to reinforce the idea that WLS is unnecessary?

What the Optifast does is help you to shrink your liver, faster than in a normal diet because it is so low cal/low carb. If you have a fatty/enlarged liver at surgery time, it gets in the way of the surgeon, making the op more difficult for him and can bruise/bleed very easily, causing more pain in the post-op. Get Doc Watson to show you the videos - it is sooooo apparent when you see it. It's hard to stick to but well worth the results. I had a dream recovery - no gas, virtually no pain other than a little soreness around the incisions. Didn't even take the pain meds after the first day and I'm never one to turn down pain meds if they're needed.

LOL - I couldn't do that! I have long hair and wash it every day. Weighing after the shower would include all that wet hair and water weighs a lot, as we all know!! Hehehe!

Yeah, Dr Watson did say I didn't HAVE to, but he showed me the videos of surgery with and without the pre-op fast and encouraged me to do it. I liked the way he let me make my own decision and decided to do it to give myself the best possible chance.

This seems odd to me: "My doc is offering to do a sleeve or bypass free of charge since the band failed, but I am just not up to having another surgery after that scare.", followed by: "the bills of the surgery for removal is gonna be like another 4k or so". If the doc is willing to do surgery for free, why wouldn't he just offer to not charge for the removal, rather than try for another type of WLS?

I fly to and from work every week and have not noticed any change in restriction as a result of flying. I don't have my band particularly tight though, so that may change after a few more fills. I was feeling reasonably ok with sticking to 1 cup before my first fill, so asked the doc to be pretty conservative. He only put in 1cc and it felt tight for the day, but by the next day was back to normal. I flew again a few days later and still didn't see a difference. Since then, I'm feeling a lot more hungry and regretting going easy on the first one. I'll see how flying affects things after my 2nd fill, in 2 weeks time.

Low-cal icecream toppings don't break the rules and can be the saving of Optifast. Failing that, if you like coffee, a level teaspoon in both the chocolate and the vanilla can make it almost palatable...

Heheh - yeah, Doc Watson moves fast! I had my first appointment with him on Nov 27 and had the op on Dec 10! Had to start the Optisludge diet immediatelly - no time for one last supper :cursing: He's very competent though - heard nothing but good things about him.

Awww - she's adorable!! And so are those slippers!!

Welcome to Bandland, min! Yeah, it's true. Doctors seem to have different schedules but 2 weeks liquids, then mushies is pretty standard.

On the liquids? I fell in love with the Campbells and Heinz chunky fat free soups and read every label. Quite a few of them are only 100-150 cal per serve and I blended the chunky ones early on and then just chewed the chunks to absolute mush as I got towards the end of that phase. In my liquid phase, a typical day's eating for me was: Breakfast: Optifast 150 cal Lunch: 1 cup Cream of chicken Soup 80 cal Dinner: 1 cup Lamb Rogan Josh soup 170 cal Total: 400 cal If I was extra hungry, I would have another bowl of soup late at night, bringing it up to 500-550 for the day. I just had to be careful not to pick the full fat soups, which can get up to 2-300 cal a bowl and not to have seconds of the Lamb Rogan Josh soup (which is delicious!!) I don't do that now - I'm probably averaging around 7-800 but I have occasional bust outs where I go up to 1500 a day. My loss is fairly slow but I'm ok with that - I want it slow so my skin has time to recover. I don't know how true it is, but I'm working on the assumption that the faster the loss, the worse the sagging, so I want to move carefully. As long as it doesn't stop altogether or start going up again, I'm cool... Mind you, I freaked out when I GAINED 3lb on that liquid diet!!

Working on your feet all day is a lot of exercise! Unfortunately, it's not enough all by itself, else you wouldn't be in the position you are in, but I can sympathise with your tired feet. What about Water aerobics? Do you have a pool centre near you? Could get to one or two sessions of that a week? Exercising in the water is so much better for your joints and would probably be a lot easier to manage than trying to walk on sore feet. How old is your daughter? She would probably love to join in if she's not too young. Maybe you could find an early evening session, so it wouldn't be too late for you both?

From what I've read, it's not so much the mushies as the timing of the plateau. Most people report that they hit this wall where they slow down or regain a few pounds, within a couple of weeks of surgery. I've heard people say it when they've gone from clears to full liquids, from liquids to mushies, or from mushies to solids. It happened to me when I was on liquids and eating <400 cal a day! I think you just need to be prepared for the likelihood of hitting this plateau about 3-5 weeks after starting your diet, so if that includes a pre-op diet, about 2 weeks post-op is smack in the middle of the time. It is frustrating and annoying but it usually only lasts about 2 weeks and then, provided you stick to the band rules, things start moving again after that.

I was very paranoid about coughing right after surgery, so laid off completely for a couple of weeks. After that, I indulge now and then but pack very small hits so I won't cough. The munchies are a bit of a problem but manageable - ff rice crackers FTW!

This is a really odd NSV but bear with me, coz it makes sense to me and it ends up being a good thing! Yesterday I had the crappiest day I'd had in a long time (nothing to do with the band). Everything that could go wrong did go wrong and by the evening I was thoroughly pissed off with the world. I won't go into details but believe me, it was a ROTTEN day! As a result, I fell off the wagon completely - but the manner in which I fell IS the NSV. I was grumpy and annoyed and so had a couple of scotches with Water to try to pick my mood up. Since the banding, I can only handle a couple at a time, whereas previously I would have knocked off half the bottle (and sometimes all of it! :hurray:) over the course of the evening. I got quite tipsy and immediately lost all self-control in regards to eating and settled in to have a major pigout and pity party all by myself :frown:. Naturally, in that bad mood, I hadn't bothered to fix myself a proper dinner, so when the self-restraint fled, I grabbed what I could from the fridge. My pigout for the evening was a whole packet of Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream Rice Crackers (420 cal, 6.9g Protein, 7.4g fat) and an entire container of Chilli Crab & Spring Onion layered dip (270 cal, 9g protein, 21g fat) AND TWO Dessert Creme Caramels (200 cal, 6.8 protein, 4.4g fat each), for a grand total of 1090 cals, 91g protein, 37g fat! Not a good result, right? Wayyyyyy too much for a diet!! HOWEVER, the NSV part comes in that it WASN'T an entire meat lovers pizza with all the toppings (2880 cal, 112g protein, 168g fat) or a Double Quarter Pounder with cheese and a large fries (1300 cal, 54g protein, 74g fat), which is what it would have been pre-band days. Not only that but this morning I can acknowledge that what I did was stupid but I have no desire to say "Stuff it all, I give up!! I quit!! Gimme another Big Mac and Fries today!" I'm getting right back on that wagon and moving forward - and THAT is a huge NSV for me! PS: The taste delight of the crackers and dip cannot be overestimated - absolute heaven!! And if you don't go stupid like I did, and only have a normal portion - 1 row (1/4 pkg) of crackers and 1/4 of the dip, it is a very healthy and low cal snack! 155 cal, 4g protein, 7g fat.

Can anyone who has been at or near goal for a long time say whether the sagging improves over time? I know that we can expect some extensive sagging when we first lose the weight, but wouldn't that improve after a couple of years, if only a little bit? I would think that the skin would gradually shrink back, once it's not being stretched out any more. I'm hoping so anyway - my plan is to hopefully hit goal in 12-18mths, maintain that for at least another year, and then see how much work I need doing. I know I'm gonna need the boobs done and probably the tummy but I was kinda hoping the arms and legs, etc would recover at least a little. I know it won't be the skin of a 20yo but is there any hope at all?

Well here we are, 26th January again and time to wave the flag for the year :rolleyes2: I found this a few years back and it still brings a smile to my face:

Forgot to post an update - I made the 1km on the night I posted this and did it again the next night too! I went home on the following day and didn't get as much walking in as I should have, but still managed 2.5km on 3 out of the 6 days I was home. Back at site this week and made 1km in the pool for 3 nights, but got a little slack for the rest of the week. I'm heading home again today and going to aim for 6 days of walking!

I know what you mean regarding control. I think that was a significant factor in my weight gain. When I got married at age 23, I was slim and fit - @125lb, 38-23-34. I made the mistake of marrying a man I didn't know as well as I thought I did and he turned out to be an incredible control freak as well as a violent drunk (he's now an EX ). Our lifestyle changed drastically after the wedding (no more going out dancing all night, full meals every night, etc) and I started to gain a little weight. He used to berate and belittle me every time I ate, so of course I rebelled by eating more and even sneaking food when he wasn't watching. Within a few years, I had gained about 20-30lb and his favourite refrain when slapping me about was "You FAT UGLY PIG!!" (This was at about 140lb!) With my self-esteem crushed, I turned to food for comfort (yeah I know, lots of other issues there, but that was significant). By the time I got out of the marriage 8 years later, I was about 160lb - overweight but not huge. I can clearly remember the first four years of being single again, when I did things like hang out in the refrigerator at night saying things like "Haha! Watch me eat this!! You can't stop me now!!" I deliberately put on the fat suit, partly because of that "defiance" aspect and partly because I wanted to keep men away - both were desperate attempts at taking a measure of control in my life. By the end of 4 years of single life, I had put on another 60lb and was around 220lb. At that stage, I sought therapy for my issues with self-esteem, the marriage and how I had managed to get myself into that situation. The therapy helped a lot and I really came to terms with who I was and how I had arrived there, but unfortunately the fat suit wasn't as easy to take off as it was to put on. Since then, I went through various stages of dieting and failure, and thinking I had accepted the weight and settled for being a "fat person" forever. I slowly yo-yoed my way up another 55lb until I hit my all time high of 275lb last year (15 years post-marriage). Now that I have made the change and been banded, I realise that I had never really accepted it and I am now finding comfort in having the control to be able to take the weight off. I'm looking forward to finding the "real me" under this fat suit.

Well I didn't really talk to anyone about it seriously until after I'd made the decision. This is something I had been "dreaming" about for several years, started thinking seriously about when a friend went through it about 18 months ago and lost really well and just kicked around in the back of my mind until about mid last year. I went back to my GP for "one last ditch effort" on a new weight loss drug, but after about 2 weeks on that, I was easily able to eat past any effect the drug had. I was feeling really low one afternoon thinking about how my weight was so out of control and had been for so long; how my new job on the mines was giving me everything I wanted in terms of material things but was putting me into temptations way so badly with the camp food that I had gained nearly 50lb in 18months. Last October I searched on the net for weight-loss surgery and stumbled over this site and spent the next several days furiously reading everything in it! My decision was made on the first day - I wanted the band and I wanted it right NOW! I made the decision, called my GP to set up an appointment to get the referral to the surgeon and that was that. I didn't tell anyone until I had the appointment set with the surgeon (Nov) and since then I've been telling anyone and everyone! My surgery was in Dec and I am loving what I have done for myself. My suggestion would be to read, read and read some more. Talk to people, preferably those who have had some experience with it. Yes, the surgery has an element of danger - read the Complications threads and become familiar with them. Think about how the chance of complications compares with the chance of ill health as a result of your weight - which is more likely? Yes, it can be expensive if you are self-pay (I am), but what is the cost of good health, both physical and mental? How much will you save in the long run? For me, it is absolutely worth it. Yes, it takes effort to maintain and work the band. I've not had a lot of success in the past with anything that requires a long sustained effort. However, the beauty of the band is such that even if one "falls off the wagon", you can pick yourself up later and get another fill and get back on track. I'm very confident this time round that I have made the right decision. Good luck in making your decision.

Is the cardiac/pulmonary stress test compulsory for those with high BMIs or something? Mine was high but under 50 and I didn't have to do any such thing.

Whenever I moved to a new area and found a new local GP, I always amazed him/her with my overall health, given my size. My blood pressure has always been low to normal, I have been tested for diabetes several times and always come back ok. I was at my all time high just prior to the pre-op for surgery and in the bloodwork they did on me, my cholesterol was 4.? (which I believe is very good), thyroid fully functioning and insulin levels only very slightly raised but not diabetic. About the only related problem I can claim is that I know I've started snoring a few years back and, although I haven't done the tests, I'm fairly sure I have sleep apnea. I have woken up gasping for air because my soft palatte has fallen down and blocked my airways. I'm hoping that will clear up as I lose the weight.

Tammru, there is a whole sub-forum especially for people with a starting BMI of over 50: BMI over 50 - Lap Band Talk Forum - The largest forum for Lap Band Surgery Discussion and Lap Band Surgery Support so I guess that means there are quite a few in that situation. Good luck on your journey and I hope it works out for you.

QUOTE FOR TRUTH!!! Absolutely!