tootyoyo

I was banded in Mississauga (Toronto) on December 18th, 2014. I am 11 weeks post-op and down 37 pounds.
It may not be a ton of weight lost, but its all gone, gone gone forever, and I am losing slow and steady. As I lay in bed last night, I touched my ribs (I have ribs?!) and reflected on how things have changed for me since being banded two and a half months ago.
I realized last night that I am totally, completely, madly in love with my band. Here's why:
My size 22 pants fall down to my ankles if I don't wear a belt. Even when I do wear a belt, my size 22 pants look like I'm wearing a parachute. I can put on my "old" jeans without unzipping/unbuttoning the fly. My tummy scars are a proud (and only slightly scary) red/purple, and serve to remind me every day of the commitment I've made to myself. My College students talk about me when they think I have my back turned/can't hear them and say things like "Damn, she's looking GOOD". I no longer have to use a "bath sheet" sized towel. A regular sized one wraps around my bod, thanks very much. I am no longer winded when I climb a set of stairs. People at work tell me hair looks AMAZING. What they are actually saying doing is choosing my hair as the way to give me a "YOU LOOK AMAZING!" compliment without verbalizing my obvious weight loss. This gives me JOY. I can no longer feel my thighs pressing against the sides of my office chair. Truth: In the shower, I no longer have to lift stuff up to wash other stuff. Seriously. When I get up to pee in the middle of the night there is no pain in my body. Anywhere. The aches are gone. My favourite LL Bean down jacket from before I chubbed out FITS ME and I can zip it up easily. I proctored an exam the other day sitting cross-legged on a desk. My herniated disc (due to obesity) has resolved. I can now roll over in bed pain-free. I can sleep on my stomach again. This is also something that gives me JOY. I sat on the floor with a group of students the other day, and realized I had gotten up again with absolutely NO EFFORT. I can chug water! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do this after being banded. (It's the little things...) I have been watching my cheekbones emerge. Wow. Our grocery bill has gone down dramatically. I eat 1/3 (if that) of what I used to eat. My husband says with the grocery money saved since being banded we could buy a cottage in Muskoka. (lol!) Speaking of my husband, I weigh less than him for the first time in a decade. And more about my husband: I've noticed him touching my bum. A lot. And smooching me up. And hugging me close. He's proud, I can tell. My band gently (and sometimes not-so-gently) reminds me to slow down when I eat. Thank you, dear band. I have learned what freedom from the hunger monster feels like, and MAN OH MAN is that ever sa-weet. I have a constant backdrop of satiety. I no longer think about, or worry about, my next meal. Love those band adjustments! I am looking forward to getting into my MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op - the Canadian version of "REI") 'Rad Pants' I've kept from 1994. They are red, they are a size 10. The summer is almost here and with it comes a canoe-trip. I will be wearing those pants. I feel like a I have a new lease on life. Woo hoo! It's okay to stall. It's ok to have the occasional chocolate banana fritter. (Whoops - damn it was good). I am in a love affair with my band, but more importantly, with myself.
THIS is why I am in love with my band.
Happy happy!

I've been getting tiny fills now and then over the last year. Four fills of 0.10, with my last one in August. I debated getting one in September but my NP and I decided together to try modifying my food plan and waiting to see those results.
Well, I'm a stubborn old broad, and I resisted making serious changes right away. But here's what I did change over the last four months:
I gave up alcohol completely in September.
I gave up fried food in November.
I gave up my weekly carby Thai overindulgence in December. Do I miss it? Hell yes.
I gave up movie crapcorn completely in December. (Not movies though. I actually smuggled two pears into the movies a few days ago and got a little thrill out of that.)
I began planning, committing, and tracking my food to my OA sponsor and using MyFitnessPal again two weeks ago.
What happened? My band is talking to me again. I feel the stop signals very clearly now. I get the "enough" sensation on much smaller quantities. My dog is loving it because he gets the p rotein I can't finish.
Bottom line is, I had to clean up my food for my band to be able to do its job right. I'm filled enough. I know that now.
The band surgery alone enabled me to drop 2/3 of my excess weight without much behavior modification. Sure, I was eating less, and not eating between meals. But I was emotionally hanging on to my greasy, fried favorites and drinking with friends every weekend, not to mention socking away tubs of buttered crapcorn on a twice-weekly basis. And scratching my head as to why I stopped losing weight.
Making the changes I made above was an incremental process. I wasn't ready to do it until I was ready to do it. I'm really glad that my band stayed consistent while I floundered around figuring this out.
For whatever reason, I'm now motivated to get the rest of this weight off, and to follow the disciplined plan I have worked out with my OA sponsor.
This may or may not help somebody else. But if you're chasing the elusive green zone, and wonder if you really need more fills or not, see if cleaning up your food for a few weeks first makes a difference. It did for me.

Had my 3rd fill on Dec 1st. And I must say that since that fill which was 0.5cc (1cc first two times) I have hardly been hungry at all and when I do eat, my band finally tells me to slow down AND I cannot eat nearly as much. This has to be my green zone because I can't imagine going in for another fill......AND 61.5lbs gone!

Weight Loss Surgery was such an out of the blue decision for me -- I'm not even sure exactly how it came about. We live in the boonies, I don't watch TV, and I didn't know any one else with a LapBand (or any other WLS). I am kind of a health food type and had never been an overnight patient in the hospital before. I guess I heard that a cousin's doctor had recommended this for him and so I started digging into the research. Almost right away I realized I was the perfect candidate. I think what this means is that I was READY. I had spent two decades dieting and working every weight loss angle under the sun, yet I always put the weight back on again plus a little more. Each year I was a little heavier, and since I'm in my fifties it was really starting to add up. I ate well, just too much. Now I eat well, just in much smaller portions and at appropriate intervals. What a difference this makes over time.
Here I am today 75 pounds down from when I started 17 months ago. I honestly can't believe it. Next month at a year and a half I hope to be able to report 80. It's been a long winter and I have not been exercising as much as I'd like. I know from experience that for me the exercise is really the magic ingredient. I hate the gym and as soon as this sleet and snow clears off I can't wait to resume outdoor walking again. Last year I bought a bike and I look forward to that. I have arthritis and being able to do these things is a real gift. So much easier without carrying around all that extra weight!
The scale is the scale and sometimes it doesn't budge. I tend to lose some and then hover a long while around a particular number for a while. This can be frustrating but I've learned that it is okay, that the scale will eventually move. Meanwhile, its all about the pants, the pants. I have gone from 18 jeans down to size 10 in the same brand. Right now I have a pair of size 10 jeans in another brand that I picked up on sale and they are way too tight. But I'm going to get into those jeans over time -- and I also have a couple of pair of linen pants in my closet. I try them all on from time to time and that helps keep me motivated. It's all about the pants, the pants.....
Determining a goal weight is hard -- I guess I will know when I get there (and I know I'm not there yet). I'm fairly tall and don't want to be "skinny" -- I like my curves. For now I am thinking 155 might be a good weight for me and I am thrilled to be just 22 pounds away from that goal as of this morning. Oh my goodness, I am so happy!

Here's a pic from a gala I went to with my husband at the Plaza Hotel. We were fancy fancy but inside all I could think of was wow I am actually wearing a size 8 dress! I was previously a 16 (on a good day)!

Thanks for taking the time to reply professor. I think I might be at green too then. I think I'm waiting for a hard stop every time whereas I don't think that is the idea really. I do get the hiccups and then stop eating so I think that might be it. good luck with the rest of your weight loss x

@Tootyoyo:
The green zone feels like heaven! Hmm... its tough to describe it, and of course, I can only speak for myself. Here I go:
Being in the green zone feels like an absence of hunger. It doesn't feel like being "full", as in when someone scarfs down a turkey dinner at Thanksgiving. It feels simply like satiation - not thinking about food, not dreaming about food, not being anywhere near tempted to snack...
Like walking by a vending machine or driving by a McDonald's and being utterly disinterested.
I also know I'm 'green' because of my portions. I don't get a hard stop, so much as a 'soft' stop. I can have about 10 or 15 bites of whatever it is - a chopped salad, omelette, lamb chops, etc. and I find myself taking in a deep breath and sighing - a happy sigh of having had enough. That's the signal! For me it's waiting for the sigh. As soon as the sigh happens, I stop.
A green zone example: Yesterday I woke up early and had a Protein shake with a drop of skim milk (170 calories) at 8:15 am. I spent the morning running errands and at 1pm found myself at the mall shopping for a new bra (I've dropped a cup size in the past two weeks!)
So there it was, 1pm, and I had had nothing but a wee Protein Shake all day. Even though I had no hunger, it was high time to eat something or risk hypoglycaemia. So I took myself to the food court in the mall - Mama Vinelli's (first time) - a place that has salads. All orders are made fresh, so the place is a good choice (compared to A&W, KFC, Chinese Express, etc). I ordered a large chicken caesar salad... until I saw the person in front of me get hers - hold CRAP it was massive.
My green zone band instantly said, "No way you're going to be able to get through even HALF of that, sister!" so I changed my order to a small with a request for just one Tbsp of dressing, no croutons, no fake bacon bits. Glad I changed my order. I took 20 minutes to leisurely enjoy my salad, and sure enough, after 15 or 20 bites, there was the "satisfaction sigh". I had salad left over. Yay!
SO the green zone for me means feeling full on smaller portions. I'm still in the process of making this adjustment. My "eyes" are only now getting used to NOT being bigger than my belly. For the first few months after getting banded, I would still take big helpings: three chicken thighs, rice, multiple big florets of broccoli... now I know one thigh, no rice and a single floret will see me through for hours.
After my 1pm chicken caesar salad, I went home and started cooking madly as I had company coming for a special Indian dinner. I love to cook and put on a huge spread - butter chicken, shrimp vindaloo, aaloo matter (peas & Potatoes), naan bread, basmati rice, lamb korma kebabs, lentils...we ate at 6:00pm, and I had no appetite. I took a side plate of shrimp and butter chicken, (about 6 Tbsps) and that was me done.
See the pattern here?
Small portions, long satiety (4-6 hours) between meals, feeling satisfied after just a few bites. Beautiful green zone!

I was banded in January and it's not been all plain sailing but I am 50lb down. My 3 rescue dogs are responsible for half of this - I'm sure of it. I say get the rescue dog now, chances are they won't have been exercised much stuck in a dog pound and you can get fit together. That's exactly what happened to me. Now we walk two miles every evening and the best bit is my ankles don't swell any more.

I was banded in January and it's not been all plain sailing but I am 50lb down. My 3 rescue dogs are responsible for half of this - I'm sure of it. I say get the rescue dog now, chances are they won't have been exercised much stuck in a dog pound and you can get fit together. That's exactly what happened to me. Now we walk two miles every evening and the best bit is my ankles don't swell any more.

Major breakthrough this week: I no longer require a walking partner. I have a few good ones, but in the past when no one else was available I tended to skip that day. This is a pretty major walk around a lake and I benefit from it in so many ways. Twice this week I have gone alone (caveat, I do take my dog, who has to run to keep up with me) and it turns out I prefer it! I can go as fast as I want. I can do intermittent jogging to get my pulse up. I can stretch and stop/start/stop/start for an increase in cardio. I can think and let my mind wander rather than converse. The main thing is that before I was walking to benefit the other person -- that was my motivation -- and now I am doing it just for ME. Yippee!
I've worked out for many, many years (I'm going to be 54 this year). I have arthritis and have to move or I can't move at all, lol. I honestly thought I was a person who could not achieve the high of exercise but it turns out that I just wasn't working hard enough. For years I had a 45-minute workout but it turns out I need 60-70 minutes. I had to fake my way into liking exercise and now it's turning out to be the best part of my day.
To any one who isn't exercising yet but is considering it, I really recommend just walking a little further each day and a little faster each week. It's amazing how it adds up and what a difference it makes. I am not at my goal weight yet but I am fit and toned. I have no loose skin. And mentally, exercise cannot be beat.

Hi I just wanted to update this because you were all kind enough to reply. Well I got a 2cc fill and I kind of feel something if I eat really quickly but apart from that I feel nothing. Like last night I had a curry poppdoms naan bread and felt NOTHING!!! just scoffed it. Anyway the good news is that I have actually kept losing weight,(yesterday was a treat not the norm) mainly because I found exercise I love which was a complete fluke - I'm now 42 pounds down. I still feel like I'm going it alone though and if I wasn't busting my backside exercise wise I'm pretty sure I'd have stuck. I'm getting another fill in a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll feel something then. Thanks all x

I would never tell anyone what they should or should not do....especially to strangers on the internet....I'm not their Dr. nor do I even know them...nor do they know me.
Only thing people should do is share their personal experiences,......
So, saying that....my band is adjusted to where if I eat too much, to fast, I will get stuck...will also get stuck if I eat the wrong foods...there are certain foods I now avoid because the risk of getting stuck is too great....
It's also interesting that these foods I no longer eat, where not that good for me in the first place and traditional dieters are told to avoid....
The band changed my life....I was fat-obese because I ate like a pig....everything and anything anytime of the day...a real glutton.....I can't do that anymore...because of the restriction, I have to be very selective, and take it very slow....and stop when the band says stop.
Sooner or later you get tired of getting stuck....and for me, there is a limit to how much I can eat...the band restricts my portion sizes....force the issue by attempting to overeat results in the same experience as not eating properly....so it is impossible for me to overeat...(I tried)
My last fill I could not keep anything down for weeks....called My Dr...(who knows me) and he told me to stick it out and think about what I was eating and how I was eating it....and he was right...it was my bad habits that were the problem, not the band being too tight.
That was 4 years ago....
So, for me, I have to eat slowly, small bites and swallows, and stop when the band says stop.....otherwise it will result unpleasantly....call it behavior modification....because of the band I don't eat the same way as I did prior to surgery...and that is what led me to success....
I have not gotten stuck in years...come close from time to time, but that's when I stop....
I read posts here all the time from people who get stuck, and feel they are too tight and go get Fluid taken out....
Where they too tight? How am I (or anyone else) supposed to know?...I'm not their Dr.,or even know them the slightest.... I do not know these people...they're strangers....nor do they know me so why should they listen to what I tell them to do or not to do....
Again, all I can do is share MY stories....
Maybe they are not too tight, but are still trying to eat like a fat person eats....Who Knows? Not me...

Right after surgery, everybody looses weight...lap band or no, we are on a strict post-op diet starting with Clear liquids and slowly progressing. Who wouldn't loose weight? And yet people give credit to the band.
At this stage, the Lap Band is doing nothing, IMO....it was installed and nothing more.(there are a FEW EXCEPTIONS...very few)
And let's face it...people who have much to loose, will loose more than the next person not quite so heavy.
So when someone says "I Lost 50 lbs, blah blah blah, the next person should not feel bad only loosing 10lbs.
I know people who could loose 50lbs if they skipped dinner! (only joking)
There are people here who start at 400lbs and loose over 200, and people who start at 225 and only loose 75....so which is more difficult?
So don't let the #'s intimidate you...it's all relative.
I had my first fill 4 weeks after surgery, and it was 4cc's....after that, I began to gain weight because it also the time I came off the post-op diet and began eating normal food again. DUH!
That first fill did absolutely nothing.
Had my second fill of 2cc's, 4 weeks after that, = 8 weeks from surgery.
The band began to do something....I didn't loose weight, but I did not gain either.
All this time I was being told and reminded to count calories, measure portions, stay away from certain foods/drink, etc...ALL the things I could have done (and have done) without surgery, the time and anxiety put into preparing for this, not to mention the $$.
Talk about Frustration!! I felt it was a big Rip Off!
Came back 4 weeks after that, = 12 weeks from surgery for my 3rd, (and final) fill. THAT one put me over the top.Pushed me off the edge!
Could not keep anything down. Feared I was going to be malnourished, etc. I was free falling!
Many people would have gone back to get it taken out, get back within their comfort zone......but my Dr. (who knows ME and not YOU) talked me into sticking it out, talked me into slowing down my eating, choice of foods, all those thing etc, etc.
Also said if I did get that last (small) fill removed, it would put me back to where I was after my 2nd fill...did I want that?
I'm glad he did...it took weeks - months for things to start to find that groove, but it did all start to fall in line.
That elusive "Fine balance - Harmony" where the band performs splendidly. The true "Green Zone"
I quess my point is, this thing DOES WORK, but it is not going to work immediately...it is adjustable and it takes time, sometimes with trial and error, to get it right.
And it is not just the band that gets adjusted along the way...we too have to get adjusted to the Lap Band. And that is key to success.
Lap Band Surgery will "Change Your Life" but you have to ready and willing for change. And that can be very frustrating and take some time. Even though my last needed fill was 12 weeks from surgery, and the weight began to steadily and consistently come off, a year later I was still learning lessons, Life changing lessons...most times the hard and unpleasant way. Did not mean the band is at fault.
I'm 4 years out, and I can do something right now, this moment, that would cause a very negative reaction with my band. Does not mean my band is at fault...it means I just did something I should never do...simple, yet it did take time to learn the difference.
If people told me 4 years ago what and how little I would be eating today, and still be healthy and full of energy, I would have said they were blowing smoke up my you know what.
And yet here I am at that place, and to tell new people this, would be accepted the same as I would have 4 years ago.
This is the internet, and 1000's of people come and go here all the time. And I have read people's posts about frustration and feelings of failure (many of which are way pre-mature...give it a chance) when in fact I sense they are not willing to accept change. (still talking about pizza and cheese burgers, etc? Really?)
Not all, but some. There are people who legitimately have problems, complications. But we, strangers on the internet can ever tell what is going on.
They can't understand why they keep getting stuck...There's something wrong with their band...maybe there is, and maybe it's not the band....no one on the internet can tell for sure.
That is why it is best, IMO, it's best for people to simply share their own experiences, AT ALL LEVELS, good and bad, positive and negative...
Ok, it's 4am on a Sunday, I'm rambling on with my morning coffee before heading to the gym at 6...nothing more, just rambling..and pehaps ranting.

@@tootyoyo yes if you were to get sick or have food poisoning you would vomit from your actual stomach. Being banded does not mean that you should be vomiting. The only reason you would be vomiting is if you were sick with some type of virus or food poisoning.
As a banded patient you should NEVER want to be vomiting. Practicing good eating mechanics will help to ensure that this does not happen even when your band is adjusted properly and you are in the "green" zone. The goal is not to be vomiting but to control the amount, type and timing of your food intake.
The band does not hold food at the top of the band, the food passes through the stoma that the band creates and food moves into the larger part of the stomach. So any food that is coming back up is usually coming up from the larger portion of the stomach. If there is food caught above the band it is because there are some eating mechanics in failure.
Either you have eaten a bite that is too big and not chewed well enough and there for is unable to pass the stoma, you have eaten the bite too quickly after the previous bite and you have now caused a stacking situation about the band and/or you have taken a drink of Fluid while eating before the food has cleared the band and again causing a bit of stacking issue which will cause the liquid to move below the food and filter through the band and force the food up and out.
So if you practice good eating mechanics cutting small bites, eating slowly chew chew chewing and do not drink while eating you should never need to vomit.

Hi. I'm in GA. The pain has been manageable. I'm on day 4 post-op. Day 2 was the worst for me. Today I've slept a lot but tried to walk every two hours.

How is your pain by the way?

You've been banded the same day as me!! Hope it's going well. Sounds like you're about the same as me - drinking with ease - bit bruised though! Take care xxxxx

I get banded on Saturday - thanks for the inspiration

I get banded on Saturday - thanks for the inspiration