Jachut

If they arent going to move it it wont be separated from the abdominal wall, but if the do, there's nothing particulaly complex about that. My ps has told me hell move it and in The process take the back off it, which reduces the pofile, and my lapband surgeon had no problem with that nor did he think it necessary to be unfilled.

I was wondering, since my surgeon said theres no need to unfill. Ive really struggled since a complete unfill fifteen months ago for major bowel surgeru, never really got my restriction back so i would welcome a few tight weeks, and to match my new tummy, four or five pounds off would be nice too, lol. But as we all know OVERTIGHT just doesnt get us anywhere. So do go see your doc if youre vomiting, etc

Mine's next week, eeeeek! But seeing your pic Im also really excited, also very much looking forward to having my huuuuge inguinal hernias fixed, they hurt!

I do a lot of smoothies too - freat way to get fruit and veg. I loathe Protein shakes, but i do actually like Optifast. I love the coffee flavour with a bit of extra espresso and walnuts blended just so the walnuts still have crunch. Mmmmmm. I also eat regular Cereal or toast, Im missing half my bowel and I really need a fairly high grain intake for the soluble fibre or Im in ten different kinds of trouble, but it has certainly not hurt weight loss or maintenance for me. I choose wholegrain varieties of course, not sugary kid cereal. I love untoasted muesli. Sometimes i just eat a good handful of trailmix.

Rumming, running, running!!!

If you have a look at my pictures http://www.lapbandtalk.com/gallery/member/204951-jachut/, I'd say I had a pretty darn lucky outcome for a 120lbish weight loss. Now, I'm having a tummy tuck next week. But do I *need* it - absolutely not. I'm having it because I got an opportunity - I have some large inguinal hernias which need to be fixed fairly urgently, I've had huge surgeries for bowel cancer and between my colorectal surgeon and the plastic surgeon he sent me too, I think they've been nice to me and offered to go ahead with a full tummy tuck to remove all the scarring etc (not that there's that much) for a bargain basement price. Both highly respected and well credentialed surgeons, so I'm extremely lucky. I would never have gone looking for a tummy tuck just because, I have certainly bemoaned my loose stomach and wished I had a six pack, like most people but for me, no way woudl that justify the expense of such major surgery. In fact if I were to have some money for PS, a tummy tuck probably wouldnt even have been the first thing on my list of wants. I'm slightly concerned that its going to be like renovating a room in your house, and highlight how shabby everything else is. I'm 44, I've had 3 babies, and I've never been really firm or tight (nor have I ever had perky breasts) but I exercised, lost pretty slowly and I think I'm just damn lucky. I didnt have stretchmarks from my pregnancy or anything, so I must just have resilient skin. Not that there's NO signs that I've been overweight, I mean I've got enough skin there to remove and put me back together, but nobody that only sees me clothed is even going to know I've had a tummy tuck, its not going to make that much of a difference to my size and profile.

It is always a bit embarrassing but you know, they wont even look. At any rate whilst your anaesthetised and go under, gown removed and drped up to hide it all, th surgeon (who is the one you have to look in the eye afterward) probably wont even be there yet. They come in at the last minute. All hell probably see is a mound of green sheets with a tummy. In the middle

Too tight.

Im having a tummy tuck/ inguinal hernia repair/scar revision in gwo weeks and my surgeon said theres generally no need to unfill, so im not. I did unfill for my bowel resection and my band has not been quite right since.

No, maybe later. For me its a sometimes I can, sometimes I cant thing. But they arent mushies!

I've done about five of them during the last two years and its always been fine. Its hard to get the liquid down quiuckly, unfortunatly you have to sip and taste it, but its doable

I'm anm opriginal lapband patient, not a Realise patient and I'm 6 and a half years out. No real problems - I did have to unfill my band totally for a major surgery fifteen months ago and upon refilling, it was never quite the same again, just couldnt get the same restriction. It seems that from unfilling, it has moved ever so slightly, causing a slightly enlarged pouch.. But I stress that that is not a major problem, doctor is happy to leave it and I do still have pretty good restriction, just not what I would previously have had with an almost full 4cc band. What happens to me now is that the larger pouch allows me3 to eat a tiny bit more - hardly perceptible - and then I'm a bit prone to suddenly realising I ate too much. My weight tends to swing a little more, but only by a pound or two, whereas bbefore it never ever moved. My feeling on this is that my band is fine for now, but I have in the back of my mind it might need replacing within the next few years. Fine by me. I never thought this would be absolutely forever, and was never led to believe that. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The bigger problem with long term banding is that you get so used to the slight discomforts and difficulties with eating that you start to miss the signals or ignore them and you do gradually begin to overeat again. Not overeat like you used to but you do eat more, the stringent carb counting or calorie counting sort of loses its shine, life takes over and you do get the occasional scale reminder that it is VITAL to always be thinking about your eating and your health. There really is no such thing as getting banded, losing weight and never thinking about food. It takes time and effort to stay on the straight and narrow. I still run for an hour three times a week and go to about four RPM classes.

I keep hitting repeat on halfway gone by lifehouse and wherever you will go (hmmm, jan wain?) - oh and i've revisited underneath the radar too, all songs that got in my head at rpm!

Well, for starters i think that sometimes, even when theres more fat you techmically *could* lose, you may look better stopping earlier and fixing tjose trouble zones with ps. I know for me, i got really thin with a bmi of just 19 and i was STILL bothered by my very flat but loose tummy and my thighs STILL had small saddle bags but you could count every rib in my chest and every vertebrae in my spine. For me ther is mo weight at which those things disappear. Ive gotten back to a bmi of 21 and my face and chest look much better but my problem areas have grown too! I think personally getting to a normal bmi of 25 or so is probably a good balance between health, attractive levels of body fat and the point where things are not going to get a lot better for the majority of people. If your bmi is say 28 then you can still choose ps of course but there would definitely be fat you could lose

Golly, the thought of vinegar when you have heartburn isnt pleasant, one would think it would burn really badly!

Ditch the idiot nutritionist for starters! That is such irresponsible advice. One thing any bandster knows is that once you have good restriction you do not mess around with it. It is so easy to lose that perfect place and unfilling your band is one very common way for that to happen. It can also cause slight shifting as has happened to me (mine was unfilled for a major surgery), and whilst that's not a problem, I've never gotten the same sort of restriction back, even when my band has been FULL. Luckily I've changed my lifestyle, kept my weight off for so long my body is now used to it and having less restriction really hasnt been a huge problem. And the second thing is, if you've really changed the mindset and lifestyle of a fat person, then holidays arent all about scoffing food anyway. You dont need an empty band to taste new things, enjoy small portions of them, etc. But certainly, if you're wide open with an as yet filled band, starving hungry and are prepared to wear the consequences of eating more, then you can safely do so. But it might be an idea to eat things that will fill you without too many calories - a wholegrain sandwich full of salad vergies and Protein is very filling but also very healthy, and less likely to cause weight gain than stodgy, heavy bistro food for example. That's what I did when I had to be unfilled and the only weight I ever gained was weight I'd lost due to being sick and just took me back to a BMI of 21.

I've recently had the same diagnosis - slight - and I stress slight - pouch dilation and my doctor's plan is to do precisely nothing at this point in time, unless it gets worse. I got the strong impression for him that at 7 years out, its what you'd expect to see. When you have a stomach the size of an egg, you ARE going to overeat for it at times, no matter how good you are. Its impossible not to and the thing is with a band, over time, those small discomforts of eating which signal that you're satisfied become so normal to you that its very easy to no longer notice them and you keep eating what's on your plate - small as that serve may be. My doctor feels that one contribution to my situation was unfilling my band totally for a surgery - I did that on the advice of my colorectal surgeon and my lapband surgeon says I shoudlnt have done so, that there's no need unless you know you're going to react badly to an anaesthetic. I'm on the fence, personally, hitting a BMI of 18 at one point during my illness I think I"m glad my band was unfilled enough for me to regain some weight! But it's shifted my band a little and caused this situation to occur. Moral of the story - dont frig around with your band people. Dont have massive fills that then need to be taken out because you're vomiting and have reflux, dont unfill for a holiday so you can stuff your face thinking you'll just go tight when you get home and lose the weight, dont vomit, dont overeat. Have respect for it. That said, a slight dilation isnt really a problem. It does make being really tight even more dangerous though. For me, its a very good reminder to treat my band with respect, and to really listen to my body.

if I could, I would live on coffee, muffins and Cookies. It is pretty much all I ever really fancy eating. With some Cereal thrown in for variety. I dont like fruit at all, never have and like it even less now I'm banded. I like my vegies and do eat those, but I dont really like salad. Cold, crunchy things do not appeal to me at all. Nor does really salty stuff very often - things like potato chips dont really interest me. I find my days are made up of food choices that I dont really want to eat but know that I have to. I dont often eat what I really "want" to eat. I'm not fussy so much as I just like the ease, comfort and agreeable taste and texture of sweet carb foods. And they make my body feel a way that I like when I eat them - I'm definitely "addicted" in that way. But you cant live like that. I've had my problems over the last year with terribly low Iron levels and very weak bones after cancer treatment and I know that I have to eat well and get the nutrients in. So I supplement and try to make faultless food choices. Now that I'm thin - and my doctors think I'm still TOO thin, I make it a rule that I can eat those carb foods that I like but not in the way that I naturally gravitate to - instead of meals - but in addition to them. This keeps them in good proportion, I can afford the treat but I"m not replacing nutrition with empty calories. So yes, I do make good food choices and I exercise diligently. Getting life threateningly sick with a disease that is influenced strongly by diet and exercise tends to make that a fairly easy choice to make.

Depends what you want to achieve. Plenty of people think that anything other than pure muscle building super heavy is a waste of time. If that's you, pPick ones that focus on the major muscle groups. At a bare minimum, you need quadriceps (front of thighs), hamstrings and buttocks (some sort of weighted squat or leg press), chest (chest press), back (some sort of rowing) and shoulders (anything pushing upward). Pick a really heavy weight so you can only do 10 or 12 of them, do a couple of sets. But know that you'd be better off with free weights for a variety of reasons. If you're more of a circuit type person (and I know I enjoy that more) then pick a gym with a circuit set up where you can go fast and light and high rep and get a more constant heart rate going. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Myself, I know several women that are really into weights and I just plain dont envy or admire their bodies. I like my own better and that comes from lots of running and spinning and a few push ups to balance up the upper body. So its up to you, what your body type is and what you enjoy.

Something slidey for me too - I'm maintaining now and have for years and to be honest, eating Pasta or rice doesnt scare me. I sometimes eat steak, I occasionally instinctively know I really need some red meat and even pub cooked steak is less tough than Jachut cooked steak, lol. I pretty much eat what I feel like, only eat a little and enjoy a glass of wine. it is NOT worth overdoing it, so I dont. Eating out is not even a weekly event for me anyhow, I'm at that stage of life where I have three kids and work full time and such and am well into the cooking and family life sort of lifestyle, so it really doesnt matter what I order the once or twice a month when I go out. I have a huge fancy for pancakes at the moment though - we might go out for Breakfast tomorrow, just DH and I. I just order what I want and eat a little bit. And dont eat again then till I"m hungry, which might not be till 4 in the afternoon.

Its great stuff but it wasnt prescribed specifically for libido issues, although that was a factor. I had a very fast, very brutal menopause at 43 due to having pelvic radiation, and id become depressed, incredible irritible, foggy in th brain (i was barely functional), fatigued, demotivated and was noticeably losing strength and endurance by the week. Three weeks into taking it and i feel completely rejuvenated!

I get irritated by any show featuring obese people trying to lose weight. Seriously, i dont know if its a chicken or egg thing, but theres a definite personality type amongst peopke with weight problems and its ll about excuses, blame and victim mentality. The fact that so many of us here have lost weight successfully shows that it is possible for the penny to drop and weight loss then happens but so many people, even on this forum are just not taking responsibility for the journey. They may, in time, but upyou cant call people on it or they tend to get nasty. A lot of people also seem to waste inordinate amounts of time hating what they see as skinny bndsters who didnt " deserve" surgery, criticising how sickly normal weight peopke look and assuming they had/ have it way easier, and this attitude comes out on tv too. I dont watch any of those shows, particularly biggest loser. I cant stand them sooking over a slow climb on th elliptical when i know that despite what i went through to keep running right through cancer treatment, they ould think they have it harder. Makes me want to yell "grow some balls fatso". Bah, humbug, lol

Ive never had a high sex drive, i do it plenty and enjoy it but its definitely not like in the movies and climaxing is hard work, i often forego it because it turns the whole thing into a chore and ruins the actual intimacy. It certainly didnt improve due to weight loss. Over the past eighteen months during cancer treatment my desire for sex had gone completely and when i do it anyway it no longer feels pleasurably. Ive had a very sudden menopause. What has helped me reignite that part of my life is testosterone. Its still not like the movies but its good again and i dont have to make myself do it. My levels were SO low my doc says ive probbly been deficient all my life. I feel motivated, happier and way less muddleheaded too,

How much have you lost? Coz my hormones went whacko for a while.

Oh, I could list at on of healthy Snacks. But the thruth is if I snack, I snack on crap like Cookies, and I overdo it, I find it very hard to stop until I've eaten a "meal". So I dont. in the process of NOT snacking, I might have a few nuts, a small piece of cheese etc. But I dont plan snacks.