Deez416

Now that your a little older it time to get back on the wagon and stop the bad habits! change can help you in the long run and you will need to get USED to new healthy HABITS. Its takes time and you have to really want it. Only you can decide if you want to make the change. You are still young and have the chance to enjoy life to the fullest ! But in a healthy way. I am 59 and have so many health problems and WAITED till now to do something about it. I know it will be harder for me but i WILL DO IT ,,,but wished i had done it years ago. Good luck with your goals ! ....Bajagal

Since yesterday I have been super hungry. I found out my band is empty and the swelling must have subsided so now I am starving pretty frequently. Tomorrow I can start mushy food so I'm trying to hold on for one more day until I can start to have something more substantial. Ugh!
Also for some reason on day 7 post op my shoulder pain is so bad it is keeping me up at night. And I'm walking my soon to be small butt off!
My little pity party is over. Thank you for listening.

I feel amazing. I am so happy that I decided to go with the lapband. It's hard but so worth it. I started of dieting one month after my son was born at 250. Day of surgery (end of jan 2014) I was 232. Yesterday I weighed in at 179. I can't believe it. I didn't think the surgery would work for me as many of you can understand. But it did. My goal is to get to 150 give or take but I am just so proud of myself. Thank you all for your advice and inspirational stories.

Thank you for the info. Didn't know it took a while to actually feel the restriction. My doc said he didn't fill my band but turns out he had put 3cc in there, not sure why he didn't want to tell me. As for the fill, they gave me a numbing shot (didn't feel it) and then gave me another cc, so now I have 4cc in my 10cc band. I'm on liquids for one day and soft foods for the next day. All in all it was no biggie and I couldn't be happier.

It's been a long journey I have decided to give lap band 2 years ago I chickened out and told myself if I hadn't lost the way on my own then I would make sure that I got to be in to lose the weight here it is 2014 and I did it the process took a lot. A little frustrating and having to deal with insurance company and the doctors office I was ready to give up but it all work itself out and I am 12 days out and feeling great with the 12 days plus my pre op diet I am down 16 pounds so I'm very excited to see a little weight off. I do pretty good with the pre op diet and the first two weeks out what does no liquids I didn't give any headaches ... I've done liquids before my advice is this just get you ready for your new eating habits ..... So if anybody who is getting ready to get bandit don't hesitate to contact me

Isopure is 50g in a serving. I have a full strength chocolate in the am with a packet of via and then a half of strawberry for bedtime.

Good luck! Exciting times a head.
Glad it's going well so far on the liquid diet, the weight loss from being on those shakes for 2 weeks was totally worth it.
I was nervous too, but come here for support all the time. I'm only 3 weeks post op and have 0 doubts that this was the best decision I've ever made.
Good luck to you and keep us posted on how things go. ????

What a success and inspiration you are my friend. And I don't mean that lightly. You have been a great support for me especially as our journeys and insights are very similar. The focus is not on the pounds lost or clothing size, but on how we are reclaiming our lives instead of just sitting on the sidelines. Giving you a virtual hug today but can't wait to one day give you a real hug. Congrats on your bandiversary.

Finally got a surgery date....... November 13, 2014!! It's been a long, exhausting journey but I am SO READY! Just a lil nervous. ????

Yesterday marked 2 months post op for me. I'm down 27 lbs and happy. Needing new, smaller sized clothes which is awesome. People comment to me in person and when I post pics on FB how great I look. It feels wonderful. Also, my BP meds have been adjusted from 4 a day down to 1 a day. I travel for work often and find that one of the most difficult things is making smart food choices. I've started to travel with Protein Shakes to keep me on track. I've had two fills since surgery and now up to 6 ccs in my band. After my second fill last week I feel tighter in the mornings and usually only have liquids in the am. It took a while to get adjusted. I have gotten stuck with chicken a few times the last few weeks and it was a terrible experience. Thankfully I was alone. I've started dating someone the last month or so and wondering when is the right time to tell him about the band. I want to be honest. He has health issues and I want him to know how I struggled before and feel so much better now on the road to more success. I've told him I had surgery but no other details. I now eat much slower, in smaller bites and never drink while eating. It's something I've gotten used to. One of my fav meals to order on the go is chicken enchilada Soup from Chilis. Sodium is high but it is so delicious. The chicken goes down easily since it is soup. I plan on trying more snap kitchen meals too since I'll be home more often this month. Hopefully I will continue to see my weight drop and join onederland soon! I've got 10 lbs to go...my total goal is to lose an additional 65 lbs. Good luck to all!

Hi to all
Today mark a one year for me, It is been a challenge due to a knee surgery and unable to go to the gym, still I manage to keep most of the time eating healthy and drinking only Water, I still struggle sometimes with food, It is not easy because you see other people eat around you and you want to eat the same food, I just have one fill in a year because my band was prime and that was a advantage for me but now I am debating to have or not to have another fill, somedays I am very tight and another not I guess that happen to all of us sometimes, this is picture of me before and after, I am very in love with my band and I will do it all over again.

As I got ready for my day this morning I saw an old pair of jeans. I decided what the heck let me give them a try. Last time I tried them they wouldn't go up past my thighs. So there I went slipping my feet in, past my thighs, and buttoning them up with room to go! I went out today feeling so great about myself and then it happened, my first compliment from a coworker, saying I looked great and that I lost weight. I'm 4 weeks post op with no fill yet, but I do feel restriction, and I can honestly say I LOVE MY BAND! I remember my first week after being banded and thinking maybe I made a mistake, watching my family eat in front of me pizza, the confusion of thinking I'm hungry but finally realizing it was head hunger, the battle of making sure not to over eat, and finally I'm here. I know they're will be days where it will be tough and I may slip up, get off track but my band has showed me it does work if I work with it. I started at 247 then went down to 237 pre op and today I'm down to 222. My weight has stayed steady at 222 for a couple weeks and I'm ok with it but the change I have noticed most is how my clothes fits. Needless to say I'm one happy gal over here.

On this day last year I was at the hospital for my lap-band procedure. I knew it was a big decision, but at the time I really had no idea what the impact would be on my life as a whole. There have been so many positive outcomes. The weight loss is great, of course, and that was my main goal in getting the surgery, but it turns out that even more important than that is a powerful sense of returning to myself. Choosing weight loss surgery enabled me to show up for myself and my life in ways I didn't anticipate. I would have said that I was happy enough before, fulfilled, etc., but the contrast to how I feel now tells me that I had no idea what I was missing. Having my appetite dimmed has allowed me to escape from dieter's prison. All that brain chatter about food is gone and what a relief it is not to be beating myself up. The on/off mentality was really doing a number on me, and I am tremendously grateful to be out from under that spell.
I am not perfect and I don't need to be. The band does it's job and mostly I do mine. I choose not to count calories because that puts me back into dieter's mentality and that's not a good place for me. I still really enjoy food preparation and eating, but my portions are so much smaller than before. My "rules" for myself (and we are all different) are to eat when I'm hungry and not eat if I'm not hungry. The first one took some work. I didn't even know what hunger was because I was always tamping down every feeling that came along with some form of food. It was a process for me to learn to listen to my body's signals and respond appropriately. Generally I am not hungry until mid-morning or so, and now I welcome that feeling. It turns out that hunger isn't my enemy after all. And my body isn't either. For a number of years I felt that my body had betrayed me. No matter how hard I worked, I could not seem to get in sync for weight loss and health. The band somehow buckled me back together with my body and that sense of wholeness is very welcome.
Here are pictures taken a year apart. I have gone from a size 18 to a size 10 in the very same brand of blue jeans (Lee Long) and I am down from the 2X and 1X tops into larges and mediums. I know that I could have lost more weight in this year, but I am committed to a healthy process and this big chunk off in one year is about all I can handle in terms of the compliments I'm receiving everywhere I go. My goal now is to work on the next twenty pounds and see what that feels like when I get there. I'm not in a big hurry because my main focus is on exercise and toning. I am building muscle -- having a strong, capable body feels wonderful and I am doing what I can to take care of it.
Thank you for your camaraderie, your humor, compassion and support. It's been wonderful to be part of an on-line community, something I had never experienced before, and I am very grateful for my weight loss friends. Here's to us -- we are doing it!
 

re: "I feel like I'm always hungry? I'm almost forcing myself to feel restricted."
IMHO, the REAL 'restriction' comes when we *first* begin to notice the difference between 'hungry/not hungry' is totally unrelated to concept of 'full/not full' and 'restricted/not restricted'.
I believe dealing with actual 'hunger' vs my own unanticipated FEAR of becoming hungry, produced a lot of over eating behavior unrelated to physiological 'hunger'.
When I noticed the component of 'enjoying the act of eating' rather than 'hunger/not hunger' played a large role in my own compulsive sport eating, an essential non-physical element of over-eating became visible. Of course, the self-reinforcing nature of high carbs/high blood sugar levels overwhelm the rational brain.
Hunger is not as big a deal postOp as it was preOp. Old habits of striving to 'stay full' are doomed to fail. IMHO 'restriction' must become a MENTAL response more than a physical one.
'Not hunger' first began becoming noticeable in my early return-to-solids phase. As little as "one bite" literally DID take away that 'hunger'...along with the anxiety of becoming 'hungry'. When the effects of that 'one bite' lasted for minutes/an hour or 2 I became fascinated that the sensation of 'restriction' really didn't seem to matter so much. I began to focus on the concept of 'satiety'....something never experienced other than looking it up in the dictionary.
'Satiety' is related to 'not hungry' far more than 'restriction' or 'full/not full'. As far as I can tell, all of the Tribe of the Morbidly Obese suffer a common Grand Notion of Fail: the goal of eating is to 'get full'. That is simply wrongWrongWRONG.
This may not work for everyone, but seems to have a positive effect on *me*.
Cheers on your journey. You can do this.

Im glad its working out for you because i sure do miss an ice cold pepsi ????

I didn't clue into the no carbonated beverage until after the surgery. I would say I have done everything I have been told from the written instructions. Except I did try diet pop (my favourite bad habit). I have had no problem at all. I know. this doesn't mean It's for everyone. If I had started having symptoms ,burps or gas, I think I would have stayed away. But I am delighted by be able to indulge.

It was around four fills for the band to start working for me. I'd didn't see any weight loss until the fourth fill, and that was a good four or five months out of surgery. For the first few months you're still healing--there are sutures holding the band in place. You'll know when the band is working--you'll start feeling full after a small meal; and that is your signal to stop. It sounds like it is starting to do its job, but be patient, it does take time to find the green zone.

I'm in the same boat. Surgery on 10/23. First fill scheduled 11/13. The first week post op I guess I was really swollen so I felt really restricted in a good way. I hardly had anything to eat and list 10 lbs. Right at one week my hunger came back HUGE. My PA said that would happen and it will probably take 3 fills before I'll feel it again. Fills every two weeks. Means six more weeks of hungry and am just white knuckleing it:( I just keep reminding myself that this is a marathon and not a sprint. Also, that the weight didn't come on overnight and unfortunately isn't going to come off overnight.

Stop expecting so much in the very beginning. Everything you are feeling is normal, and you are perfectly fine.

I've had 2 fills now, and let me tell you ... it's VERY different. I feel restriction now. I may not stay full the entire time, but MAN do I feel restriction. I've learned that in the mornings, all I can tolerate is a Protein shake and maybe half a cup of coffee. At lunch time, I can handle something with a little more substance, but not much. At dinner time, I can handle solids, but I have to be careful about which ones they are. This is different for everyone, but everyone gets to that point eventually.
So .. chill. Enjoy the ride. It's ALL worth it. ^.^

I'm on the same boat. Haven't lost a pound since I switched to purée food phase, even though I'm doing everything right (I hope). Hang in there, I'm sure the pounds will come off.
Off to measure myself, can't believe I didn't do it earlier.

I'm on the same boat. Haven't lost a pound since I switched to purée food phase, even though I'm doing everything right (I hope). Hang in there, I'm sure the pounds will come off.
Off to measure myself, can't believe I didn't do it earlier.

In the beginning carbonation will gas you up. I've had one soda since surgery a year and a half ago and did fine with it. I drank it very slowly. Enjoyed it, but didn't love it. I'm pretty much over them and so glad, as it was an expensive habit. My surgeon told me he didn't mind diet soda if I could tolerate them, and I can, but no longer care about them.

I was told no caffeine, sodas, or carbonated drinks of any kind, ever. Both by my surgeon and nutritious.
Too many NSAIDS isn't good for anyone. Especially after having any type of weight lost surgery. We no longer have enough stomach acid to help break down whats in them. Too many NSAIDS can also cause kidney damage in the long run.
Speak to your medical team. They will know what works for you since they are the ones who know your medical history.
Good luck on your journey ????

Thank you all for your suggestions, I really appreciate it.
I have an appointment with my doctor on Tuesday, I'll mention it then. I'm actually on the mashed food this week, I can't even go near the Protein shakes anymore, let alone have a couple of them a day. I've started having other things to compensate, but I'm still trying to get used to all this and I completely agree, the Protein restriction should not be in place while learning to adjust to eating again while banded.

Thanks guys for the encouragement. Surgery went well, I'm back at home and feel OK so far, left shoulder pain is a bit much but we'll see how the rest of the day goes.