enjoylife

Well, today I clearly needed a refresher course in Lap-Band basics, and I got it courtesy of my doc's PA (who handles our fills). Here's what happened... N.B. I'm writing this mostly for my own benefit so I can refer back to it, but if it helps anyone else along the way, great! :eek:
Ever since returning to real food after my last fill over 2 weeks ago, I've been having not quite daily (and mostly minor) PB issues. At first, I thought I was eating too fast or forgetting to chew enough, but then I really paid attention to those things. Then I thought stress? Overfill? NAH, it can't be an overfill -- I'm way too hungry and when I don't PB, I can eat way too much. Finally, last night, I had some really violent retching and a complete return of my delicious soft-shell crab dinner. This was no mere PB -- my esophagus still hurts today!
So, I went in -- I was originally scheduled for a fill today, but by now I was thinking UNfill! They did a barium swallow to determine if I was either overfilled or had my lower stomach slip up through the band from the incident. Fortunately, neither was a problem. Phew. We then reviewed how I've been eating, and found that I had forgotten two really basic things:
1) The size of the bite that I put in my mouth should be no bigger than the clear part of the nail on my pinky finger! Using a tiny fork wasn't doing the trick. I completely forgot myself on this one. :biggrin: I should look at my fingernail often while focusing on eating. No matter how much chewing you do, if it's too much at once, it may cause problems.
2) If you do have a PB, there is always going to be some associated swelling, and the maximum swelling doesn't occur until 24-48 hours after the incident. THIS IS WHY I NEED TO DO liquids FOR 48 HRS AFTERWARD!!! :frown: (Yes, I'm yelling at myself now!) Instead, I was having a shake or two for the next 12 hours, but the next day I just merrily went back to food, forgetting the repercussions of the day before. This is why every day or two, I further exacerbated the problem with another PB. The swelling became cumulative till yesterday's disaster. In addition to 48 hours of liquids, this should be followed by 48 hours of soft foods, working your way back to solid, hard Proteins slowly.
Had I not been experiencing these problems, he would've given me a fill today. So, I'm hoping I've learned my lessons well and do not ever want to repeat this cycle. I hope no one else is going through this either.
On the plus side, I lost 4 more pounds since my last visit! :eek:

For the record - Rugman is right. How much Protein your body needs depends on how much you weigh and how tall you are. I need 79 grams. I'm not a big meat eater - when I eat (or drink) more protein my weight loss is so much faster than when I'm getting little or no protein. Go to http://www.unjury.com/reg/calculator.shtml to calculate how much protein you need day. After you do that, try getting that amount for one week - I'm sure you'll see a change. Now if I could only take my own advice consistently...

Hi All--
I went to my surgeon yesterday afternoon and FINALLY got my first fill. I asked a lot of questions. He told me that he put 2cc of fill in my 10cc AP (standard) band at the time of surg. He put 2 more cc in making it 4cc. I can feel a difference but I don't know how long it will help. He listened to everything I had to say about my hunger and lack of weight loss over the last 3 weeks. I told him I could eat as much as I did before banding but didn't because I’m afraid of gaining. I also told him I'm hunger 1 hour after eating. He asked about my Protein intake and I told him the dietician told me to have 60g of Protein a day and I do that. He said that he didn't want to argue with the dietician but that he strongly disagreed. He said that he is positive that I am experiencing protein hunger. He said that at my current weight -- I should be eating closer to 90g and that even more than that would be OK. He also said that I should be eating 2 or 3 protein Snacks a day between my meals. He says I need more protein because protein helps breakdown fat. I'm moving more (a LOT more!) that I did before banding and he says my body is NOT getting enough protein or CALORIES. I've been taking in under 1000 and he says my metabolism is shutting down. He told me to find out my target heart rate for my age, weight, gender and make sure I get my heart rate up to that point 3X a week. He said that this is EXACTLY how I got overweight in the first place -----by going on low calorie diets. Everyone, he said, always loses well at first when they take in low calories but then they always stop losing because their metabolism goes down---and then they get depressed and start eating like crazy and gain even more weight. He said walking alone won't get the heart rate where it needs to be------and eating too few calories will also stop weight loss. So I bought 1 of those pulse monitors and will increase my food. I had 2 low carb Protein Bars today and increased my calories at dinner. I also asked him about carbs. He said the same thing the last 3 MDs have told me --that I can keep my carbs low.
This does make sense to me because I have been reading medical research that discussed new findings that say that protein requirement depends on body weight and that protein is needed to breakdown fat ---but I decided to go along with my nutritionist recommendations. She is going by government standards. Now I’m going to try to do this according to the surgeon and the new research I’m reading. I'm going to try this and I'll let you know how it works.

I think we all like scale victories because they're measurable and seem absolute. But the fact is that a number of things go into making up weight, and many of them have nothing to do with the amount of fat we're burning.
You know the old joke where the patient goes to the doctor and complains
Patient: Doctor! It hurts when I do this!
Doctor: Well don't do that, then!
?
Well, the scales are the same way. If you're eating right, and exercising, then you're burning fat, pure and simple. And as most of you are chicks who have hormonal changes sweeping in and out throughout the month, some of which are going to cause you to hold on to Water, which will affect your scale weight, you KNOW that sometimes the scale is going to rise, even though you're actually burning fat.
So if you keep looking at the scales, and the needle isn't moving, STOP LOOKING AT THE SCALES! Once a week is fine, once every two weeks might be better!
It's physically impossible for you to keep a low calorie intake with adequate Protein, and to be exercising and burning calories without losing fat! So stop monitoring yourself by the scale number, focus on living right, focus on the clothes that fit you better, the way your energy is gradually increasing, the way you don't tire like you used to etc. Because at the end of the day, SUCCESS in this process ISN'T the number on the scale, is it? It's how you feel in your body, how your health has improved, how your self-confidence has improved, how you can buy clothes you'd never have fit in before the weight loss - it's about embracing LIFE, not about scoring a good number on the scale.
I have a friend at work who likes to joke about people's obsession with the numbers in weight loss. She comes up to me and starts this stream of questions: "So, Fenton, how much have you lost? Great! How much have you lost... NOW? And now how much have you lost.... Now how much? Great! And how much have you lost..... ...... NOW!" etc. It sounds idiotic, but it's pretty funny.
Anyway, I think we (certainly *I* do!) have to keep our mind on the longterm goals, and do the right thing, and stop sweating the times when the needle gets stuck.
And you, Harley! You in particular know better!
So, let's keep watching how much we eat, and try to keep our exercise up. Because, as we all know very well, THAT is how we lose weight.