Swampdoggie

I was banded in 2008. Was NOT successful. I love my sleeve. It feels much more "normal" to me. I feel much more normal with it. When I was banded, I was told it was expected to be permanent. Since then, research has documented that many people suffer issues with the band and require removal. There's more caution now about stating a projected lifetime for the product. As an aside, a bariatric surgeon I know told me that she had a number of band patients who now suffer from autoimmune problems. She wasn't certain whether it was causal or correlative. However, she feels her patients have been more successful with the sleeve over the longer term. All that said, I do know a number of people who have been successful with the band and who have not had issues. Personally, I had no medical problems with my band. I just could never figure out how to correctly work with it.

@@NoMoreFatGuy wow, sorry this is happening to you! I have my fingers crossed for you that all will go well.

@@Veronica Page I'm glad you're feeling better and the information you provided is helpful.

@@Magsqoti, super, good for you! I know it seems self evident, but feeling good feels pretty d@#n good, doesn't it? I can't wait to hit onederland too, but regardless, I just feel so much better, stronger, younger, confident-er, healthier, and even smarter, for no apparent reason really. I s'pose it has to do with confidence. Keep it up! (PS to my grammar conscious comrades, I know confident-er isn't a real word and shouldn't detract from my sense of smarterness)

I had eye drops and was glad I did. Everything on me was dry (and glad I had chapstick :> )

I love to watch our collective scale go down. (or up, as you will) I think there should be a prize for the person who hits that mark, a MAJOR AWARD! Queen for a day! Permission to use red cursive fonts and spell however the mood strikes! And lots of exclamation marks!! How do you think our community should Celebrate our 3,000,000th pound lost?

@@Veronica Page are you on any blood pressure meds? If so you may need an adjustment. The only other times this happened to me I was dehydrated. Are you giving yourself any downtime from your workouts? I know you hit it pretty hard.

You're doing it for you. Embrace it. You will succeed!

I'd like to join too - my first challenge. Will post CW and GW on the 13th. Thanks @@stephh

I had the same fears before surgery and for the first month after. I was banded and not very successful so I was really anxious that I'd be the anomaly and not lose with the sleeve either. And had been on every diet on the planet. However, this experience was different in 101 ways and I have no doubt now that I will be successful. I AM successful. So I have no doubt that you will be successful too.

Also, I don't exercise too much - I have an unrelated illness that precludes a lot of activity. BUT, I do "fast exercise", where I go like a house on fire for 30 seconds, then 2 minutes of slow, then 30sec/2min/30sec/2min for a total of 5 cycles, then walk for a bit. If I can do more I do, if I can't that day I don't worry about it.

Just wanted to post an alternate experience, though I'm still relatively "young" in this process. I could eat a lot of food early on - within 3 weeks I could easily eat 1000 cals - and that of healthy foods (who knows what damage I could have done with cookie dough!). The folks who could only eat 1/4 cup or 500 calories for months on end completely befuddled me. I felt like I was a total outlier. I am now about 11 weeks out and I get around 800-900 calories per day, though it would be very easy to eat more, I can tell you. I do Protein first. Lots of Water. Low carbs, less than 50, usually closer to 30, and then only with what comes with yogurt, veggies, nuts, etc. No bread, Pasta, rice, flour, sugar, etc. Strawberries are the only fruit I eat at present. I try not to eat processed foods and I do eat a lot of healthy fat - full fat yogurt, macadamia nuts, avocado, cream, butter, mayo, etc, which I know not everyone does. I had a stall early on, but I started losing pretty well after the first month, slowly but surely. For the past 3 weeks though I've been losing like crazy and I can't figure out what the difference is. In any case, like one of the posters said, I think there's some trial and error involved, but I'm in general agreement that carbs make me hungrier and I try to stay away from most of them, esp simple ones.

@@Babbs I'm with you. 25th Anniversary last December and I tell my kids the same thing - find someone you think is hilarious and thinks the same of you.

@@Aprilhoffman78 Wow!

Sleeved on 1/19 and lost 30 lbs since surgery. So from my perspective you're doing great! I'm with the other posters - my loss is kind of staccato - lose then stall, lose then stall. I've been in a lose for about 2 weeks (yee hah!). I'm preparing myself for patience in the stall that will surely come next (boo).

@@wannaBthinsoon I thought that was a funny interjection into a pretty comical discussion.

Well how fabulous is that! I'm one of those people hoping that in 577 days I'll be admiring my a$$ in the mirror and giving encouragement to the newbies on site. Thanks for staying involved and inspiring us! Congratulations on fighting the good fight, girl!

A thong no less! Well good for you. There's nothing like feeling great in your own skin.

@@AvaFern wondering how your butt is coming along

I thought the 10000 steps recommendation came from the surgeon general?

@@lauren8486 Thanks!

@@Cleo's Mom I like the taste of the thighs better too.

I have a charge and I LOVE it. Got it for my birthday a week before surgery. It does help keep me motivated. Between it and MyFitnessPal (they sync), I do pretty well on the tracking and they keep me in line better than before. And yes, I have found that the fitbit helps me to do more - when I'm close to a milestone, I'm more likely than not to do more activity and hit the milestone.

For those of you who smoke a joint to relax to sleep, do you have any grogginess when you wake up? (showing my ignorance, I know.) I currently use tramadol to sleep and while it does help, I can wake up so groggy so I don't use it all the time, and I do have trouble sleeping. Ambien never helped. I used Xanax for a while and that helps too, but my GP doesn't like me to use too much (I have no idea which is considered more "dangerous"). Melatonin is hit or miss. Some of you know I have Lyme and the pain can be intense and intractable. My Lyme dr is a closet advocate of medical use of marijuana (but as a lyme dr he has enough problems with state agencies for his off protocol use of antibiotics so he doesn't mention his POV unless he knows how you'll react). Some of the antibiotics I have to take now cause a lot of nausea and the versions that don't are MUY expensive and not covered by insurance. I've had a prescription for percocet for about 15 years from a back injury. I take it when I need it but can go months at a time not needing it. It can make me nauseated and it itches like crazy (so I have to take a benadryl too). I live in the DC area and once, at the time the beltway sniper was active, I was so nauseated from the percocet and in pain from the ruptured disk I had to pull over and hurl, but all I could think of was I hope this guy doesn't shoot me while I'm barfing into the weeds. I guess I'm trying to get a feel for how marijuana would fit in with different pain levels, ability to sleep and be wide awake the next day, and nausea.

I have trouble with chicken breasts being too dry for me, generally. I have switched to thighs and they are much more tender. Like the other poster, I have cooked them in the crock pot with a couple of the Campbell's Soup Crock Pot sauces when I'm in a half crunch. But if you do this, be careful - some of them are fairly low in carbs - esp if you don't eat the sauce and just use it for the moisture - but some are really high. And of course, they are higher in sodium than you'd normally want. I like to cook from scratch but you don't always have time. Cooked ahead you can use these chickies for lunch.