Lauren_Dew

Hi Ebony! I may be biased, but i say DEFINITELY GO FOR IT! The band that is. It has been such a great feeling for me to finally be off the roller coaster of weight loss. I have had a great band experience and i would say that so much of that has been due to the amazing aftercare that i receive at my doctor's office, so make sure you chose a surgeon with a great aftercare approach. And i can't think of better motivation for losing weight than the promise of a baby. I've noticed that since i've been TTC i've been thinking more about what i chose to put into my body. I've always just made my choices based on calories when dieting, but now i am thinking about nutrition for my future child. I think that's pretty neat! For me, i really needed something to physically limit my portions. I just couldn't do it for any prolonged period of time on my own. Now that the band takes care of portions, it's just up to me to chose the right foods. (Definitely not as easy as it sounds). Good luck both with the band seminar and the baby making plans!

Well, i tested this morning with a FRER Digital, 4 days before my period is due, and i got a big fat NO. :wink: BFN. Well, i may be down, but i'm not out yet. It was pretty early to test so i'll probably test again if i don't get my period when it's due, but no YES for me yet. I have an appointment today for a slight unfil. And i do mean SLIGHT! I will probably just have them take 0.2 cc out and see how it goes. Fairyfacade, i'm of course worried about what you mentioned and i really want to keep a good fill through a pregnancy, but right now i'm just a little too tight and my doctor is close by and always fits me in, plus it's covered by insurance, so i'm gonna go in and if i end up wide open, i'll just go in again for a fill. I'm still hoping that miraculously something will change over the course of the week, but for now it's a BFN. But hey, this was just my first cycle. I do think i'm going to try out the OPK next month though. Afterall, peeing on a stick is tons of fun! :smile: Good luck to everyone trying and thanks to the "vets" who come in here and encourage us! (Thanks Fairy!)

I have been really tight this past week. I had a run in with some cauliflower last week that apparently did not agree with me. PBed pretty good and then took it easy (liquids) for the next 24 hrs, but after that i still felt really tight and have continued to feel that way for the past week. I haven't PBed since the cauliflower, but that's b/c i've been careful and have been doing mostly liquids and some mushy food. So, the question is, does this tightness mean anything?? I figure it could be 1 of 3 things: Still recovering from the cauliflower PB last week My period is coming and while i NEVER had any tightness around my period before, maybe being off the pill for the first time in 10 years has my hormones out of wack Maybe i'm pregnant and this is the tightness some of you ladies have described as a pregnancy symptom. Obviously i am hoping it's #3! I am due to miss my period this Saturday (June 20th), but i have a First Response Early Response Digital at home that says i can test as early as 4 days before a missed period, so i think i'm going to give it a go tomorrow morning. Either way i'm going to the doctor to get a slight unfill because this is just a bit to tight for me. I'll let you know.

I was banded in March 2008 and so far i have lost 50 lbs. I am 10 lbs from a healthy BMI and 25 lbs from my ideal goal. We are starting TTC this month. I lost the biggest chunk of my weight in the first 9 months and since then i have been pretty plateaued where i am. I am starting to creep down again and am shooting for that "Healthy BMI". This was our first month of TTC and currently i am in the 2 week wait. I test on June 20 so we'll see what happens!

Fairy, That is totally my plan! My band doctor is on board too for me keeping my fill. Obviously, if i get too tight i will go in for a slight unfill, but i am not planning to be totally unfilled unless that became necessary. Here's hoping! I'm still deciding when i'm going to test. I'm due to miss my period on June 20th, so i'm thinking i'm going to try to hold out until then. So how did you guys tell your DH's that you were pregnant? Was he in there with you when you tested or did you tell him later? I'm thinking we'll look at the results together.

Hello ladies, This week has been the start of us officially "trying to get pregnant". Based on the ovulation calculators you can find online, i have officially entered the fertile period. But it's hard to put too much stock in their results since i basically have no idea how long my cycle will be after being on birth control pills for 10 years. But it's a start. Regardless, I'm excited and hopeful, and at the very least the "trying to make a baby" part is fun! Wish me luck.

Hey everyone, i have been reading this thread for a while and i think it's about time that i said hello! My husband and i are going to start TTC this June. In fact, i just finished up my last pack of birth control after 10 years of being on the pill. We are so excited! Just a little about me... i was banded in March 2008 and am about 10-15 lbs from a healthy BMI (depending which day you ask me). :thumbup: My husband and i have been married for 2 years and are already the happy parents of a 2 year old black lab. Besides the puppy, this will be our first child. Right now i'm reading EVERY BABY-RELATED BOOK i can get my hands on and i'm filled with anticipation. So far one of my favorites has been "Our Babies, Ourselves" and right now i'm reading "Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy". Amazon.com is making a fortune off me these days! Congrats to all of you expecting and good luck to all those trying!

Hi, I am in a similar boat. My husband and i are going to start TTC in June, but i've been taking a prenatal vitamin (at my obgyn's suggestion) for the past 2 months. I have 2 that i use. One is a liquid vitamin b/c i had the same concern about not being able to take the horse pill. The liquid vitamin i take is called "Source of Life". It is this green puree type thing that is super sweet and has everything you would expect to find in a prenatal vitamin. But it kinda grosses me out to take it sometimes and for whatever reason i've started taking my regualar prenatal vitamins in the past couple of weeks. I think it's mostly mental. :thumbup: "Source of Life" was one of only a few liquid prenatal vitamins i was able to find. Just google it if you're interested. I think i'm going to go with my regular swallowable pills and keep the liquid stuff as a backup in case i'm having a day where the idea of swallowing a big pill is just too much for me.

Sue, I'm jealous! I am a danger to myself after 6 pm! :thumbup:

I'm with you guys. I am absolutely tighter in the morning and looser at night, and would totally kill for that to be reversed so that i was tighter at night when i am more of a grazer. The other thing i've noticed is that the more i eat, the looser i become and the less i eat, the tighter i am. In other words, if i don't eat much all day, i stay tight, but if i start eating larger portions i can just eat more and more as the day goes on. Very frustrating at times. :smile:

I can definitely relate to this thread. I am 10 months out and just under 10 lbs outside of my normal BMI range. And i know that is pretty awesome, but the problem is that i have been at this point for like 4 months. I haven't been in losing mode for forever. I would say that 90% of the time i am loving how easily i maintain my weight, but the other 10% of the time i am wondering if i will never get to a healthy weight or will I just inch my way back to where i came from. Sometimes i forget how far i've come and i think i get the urge to get lower just to recapture that feeling of "entering new territory" (you know, getting to a weight i've never seen before). I think i miss the excitement and motivation of losing. Maintaining is different.

Ya know, this is a really great way to think about things. I've been hovering at the same weight for a while and every now and then i start getting frustrated that i'm not working hard enough at this, but when i think of the fact that i have lost 88% of my excess weight i feel pretty darn good about myself! In my head i may have about 20 lbs to go, but truth is i really only have about 7lbs to go before i am at 100% excess weight lost and a normal BMI. 7 lbs is nothing! I can do that! Even if it takes me another 9 months, i will chip away at those 7 lbs (and hopefully past that)!

To me, the "sweet spot" is a moving target. I've been in and out of it throughout this journey. And part of it is that as you lose you shrink (inside too) and that means your restriction changes. The key is to try to keep up with it. And even when i'm in that "sweet spot" it doesn't mean i don't have to pay attention and work it. To me, the "sweet spot" is that glorious point where i don't feel much hunger and where small Protein based means keep me satisfied (both physically and mentally). Not full mind you, but satisfied. I can lose with or without my sweet spot, but the low hunger thing really helps. If you don't even really feel restriction yet, hang in there. It makes a big difference!!

Hey Wyomin! Well think about it this way... you've MAINTAINED your weight for a whole month. :drool: I know it's hard to think about it that way when you're trying to lose, but it still something you should be proud of. As for the eating at night, i hear you about that. I have always struggled with eating after i get home from work and i still do to some extent. And i am also tighter earlier in the morning and looser at night (though i can always eat solid Protein which i have always made a priority of mine). During this little journey of mine i have had the most drastic success when i have committed to eating 3 meals a day of solid protein followed by whatever else i have room for and i did especially well when i measured my portions. When i haven't done that stuff i have still inched my way on down in slightly less impressive increments. As i said above, focusing on eating meals that include solid protein has really been a priority. Otherwise i end up eating around the band. And you know what, sometimes i still make choices that i shouldn't, but i try to eat those things after i've had some solid protein and that way there's never really that much room anyway. (Though to be honest, sometimes all bets are off and i make dumb choices, but those are the exceptions, not the rule.) There's never a better day than today for a restart or a recommitment. It's a lot less daunting than starting from where we were pre-op, right! Good luck and let's here from some others on how the handle the ups and the downs.

I'm a March 08 Bandster! Doing well. I'm about 20 lbs to goal and feeling good. I like where i'm at right now but i'm about to enter some uncharted territory (anything below 140) and that's kinda cool! There are ups and downs but the real difference with the band is that you can't really mess up all that much. The band just won't let you! How's everyone else doing?

I have lost track of the number of fills i have had, but i haven't had a fill bigger than like 0.3 cc in quite a while. It's amazing how that makes a difference these days. Right now i am in need of another fill, but i have been traveling for business so i have put it off a little. I am definitely enjoying the ease of maintaining my weight, but i still have about 20 lbs to go so i have to get it in gear. This is that hard part where you like the way you look so it gets easier to be a little lax about eating, but i want to get to goal and that means a little more work. For me this whole band journey is about maintenance. I've lost weight before, but never kept it off and so far i like what i see on the maintenance front. It's been like 8 months and i haven't fallen off the wagon and i credit the band for that. It turns what could have been BIG slips into little mistakes that barely register. I do love my band, even if i do try to out smart it every now and then!

Ok, so what am i eating in a typical day. First, i want to of course say that this is just what is working for me at this moment. It might not be right for everyone and who knows, it might not even be right for me as time goes by, but here goes! To give you a fuller picture, up until 2.5 weeks ago i had been pretty much trusting my band to limit my portions. I had pretty good restriction and I was eating Protein first and eating light during my work day and then i got home and had a "much smaller than pre-band" protein first dinner but then i would start with the grazing. In a night i would typically have at least 2 WW Ice Cream Dixie Cups and then sometimes pudding, or some pretzels or some Cereal, just constantly getting up to go get something that went down easy with the band. Bad behavior, but i was still losing... until about a month and a half ago. I spent a whole month stuck at the same weight. It was not a hard month and i did maintain while still pretty much eating whatever i wanted as long as i chewed well. But i was also PBing a couple times and found myself definitely eating around the band using slider foods like low cal ICE CREAM! Bad behavior. :thumbdown: And you know what, lost 32 lbs during that time, but 20 of them were during the 2 weeks pre-op and 6 weeks post op. And after that most of my loss came during the return to liquids then mushies that followed each fill. (I would lose 3-4 lbs in that week and then stay the same or drop maybe 1 more pound for the rest of the month so i felt like i wasn't making much progress). But frankly, it was pretty easy, and i didn't count calories and i was losing ok. But anyway, on to the real question. What am i eating now that busted my plateau. Here are the changes i made based on my conversation with my psych last week. Got a Fill - I hadn't had a fill in 6 weeks. I got 0.6 cc added bringing me to a total of 7.6 cc in my 10 cc APS band. Portion size - psych told me for my size (which she said is small in the world of bands - 5'2" and BMI around 30) that my portions size per meal should be 1/4 cup (or up to 1/2 cup) of food. I have started measuring my portions and am currently eating 1/4 cup. Meals vs. Grazing - the psych told me to eat 3 meals a day (with 2 Snacks if necessary). My snacks tend to be Protein Shakes. I drink either Profect protein shots (Protica Research - 25 g protein w/ 0 carbs in like 2.5 oz) or AdvantEdge Protein Drinks. But i wouldn't hesitate to have a cheese stick as a snack or something similar. Hunger Level - my hunger has really diminished with this fill. I don't get hungry in the morning until lunch time and i stay "unhungry" (not full, but not hungry) for about 4-6 hours. At the first sign of hunger i drink first. If the doesn't do the trick, then i'll eat something. Restriction Level - My restriction level is very good. I can eat solid protein but i feel full with my 1/4 cup of food and i have not PBed at all. Cooking & Planning Meals - I decided to start cooking & planning over the weekend so that i have meals available for the week and don't eat my fill portion just during the time i stand in front of the fridge deciding what i want to have for dinner. I have made a bunch of recipes out of the cookbook " Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery" by Patt Levine. It is very protein based. Behavior change - No more eating in the TV room. I was good all day then came home, plopped in front of the TV and grazed all night long. She told me to make a new rule that i do not eat in the TV room. This means if i want to eat i have to go sit in the dinning room. This makes me more conscious the act of eating. Before i was mindlessly grazing. Exercise - sadly i have still not started exercising. I know i should be doing it. I have no excuse. So that really looks like a lot of changes, but in truth, the most important thing i've started doing is eating 1/4 cup meals 3 times a day. I eat until i am no longer hungry (which is definitely not the same as full). Sometimes that seems really extreme to me, but then i remind myself that my stomach is the size of an egg now. Having proper restriction is really important for making this doable for me because i don't get hungry until 4-6 hours after my meals. I do a lot of drinking in the morning before i eat lunch. I have also been sucking on sugar free hard candies (like 3 - 4 a day) just to get a little sweetness and to give myself something to have in my mouth (sugar free gum also works). So that is the SERIOUSLY long version but honestly it really helped me that my psych point blank told me that for someone my size i should be eating 3 meals a day of 1/4 cup in size with 2 snacks if needed. I'm going to keep seeing the psych every now and then just to keep up the motivation i think. She really helped me focus on the task at hand. Oh yeah, and one last thing that helped me. I have been reading "The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients" by Colleen Cook and i have really learned a lot about portion size and eating for satiety. And of course i am a professional lurker on LBT and it such an amazing resource! Again, i'm still learning and tweeking and messing up and growing along this journey, so take the above as what it is... just another glimpse into a fellow bandster's journey.

Chica, I'd say i'm getting at least 50 grams of protein. But to be honest, i don't count protein grams or calories for that matter. I just try to watch portion size and focus on protein. The majority of what i eat tends to be protein anyway since i don't have room for much else. My doctor told me to shoot for between 50 - 70 grams of protein per day.

Chica, Ok, so what am i eating in a typical day. First, i want to of course say that this is just what is working for me at this moment. It might not be right for everyone and who knows, it might not even be right for me as time goes by, but here goes! To give you a fuller picture, up until last week i had been pretty much trusting my band to limit my portions. I had pretty good restriction and I was eating Protein first and eating light during my work day and then i got home and had a "much smaller than pre-band" protein first dinner but then i would start with the grazing. In a night i would typically have at least 2 WW Ice Cream Dixie Cups and then sometimes pudding, or some pretzels or some Cereal, just constantly getting up to go get something that went down easy with the band. Bad behavior, but i was still losing... until about a month ago. I spent a whole month stuck at the same weight. It was not a hard month and i did maintain while still pretty much eating whatever i wanted as long as i chewed well. But i was also PBing a couple times and found myself definitely eating around the band using slider foods like low cal ICE CREAM! Bad behavior. :eek: And you know what, lost 32 lbs during that time, but 20 of them were during the 2 weeks pre-op and 6 weeks post op. And after that most of my loss came during the return to liquids then mushies that followed each fill. (I would lose 3-4 lbs in that week and then stay the same or drop maybe 1 more pound for the rest of the month so i felt like i wasn't making much progress). But frankly, it was pretty easy, and i didn't count calories and i was losing ok. But anyway, on to your real question. What am i eating now that busted my plateau. Here are the changes i made based on my conversation with my psych last week. Got a Fill - I hadn't had a fill in 6 weeks. I got 0.6 cc added bringing me to a total of 7.6 cc in my 10 cc APS band. Portion size - psych told me for my size (which she said is small in the world of bands - 5'2" and BMI around 30) that my portions size per meal should be 1/4 cup (or up to 1/2 cup) of food. I have started measuring my portions and am currently eating 1/4 cup. Meals vs. Grazing - the psych told me to eat 3 meals a day (with 2 Snacks if necessary). My snacks tend to be Protein shakes. I drink either Profect protein shots (Protica Research - 25 g protein w/ 0 carbs in like 2.5 oz) or AdvantEdge Protein drinks. But i wouldn't hesitate to have a cheese stick as a snack or something similar. Hunger Level - my hunger has really diminished with this fill. I don't get hungry in the morning until lunch time and i stay "unhungry" (not full, but not hungry) for about 4-6 hours. At the first sign of hunger i drink first. If the doesn't do the trick, then i'll eat something. Restriction Level - My restriction level is very good. I can eat solid protein but i feel full with my 1/4 cup of food and i have not PBed at all. Cooking & Planning Meals - I decided to start cooking & planning over the weekend so that i have meals available for the week and don't eat my fill portion just during the time i stand in front of the fridge deciding what i want to have for dinner. I have made a bunch of recipes out of the cookbook " Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery" by Patt Levine. It is very protein based. Behavior change - No more eating in the TV room. I was good all day then came home, plopped in front of the TV and grazed all night long. She told me to make a new rule that i do not eat in the TV room. This means if i want to eat i have to go sit in the dinning room. This makes me more conscious the act of eating. Before i was mindlessly grazing. Exercise - sadly i have still not started exercising. I know i should be doing it. I have no excuse. So that really looks like a lot of changes, but in truth, the most important thing i've started doing is eating 1/4 cup meals 3 times a day. I eat until i am no longer hungry (which is definitely not the same as full). Sometimes that seems really extreme to me, but then i remind myself that my stomach is the size of an egg now. Having proper restriction is really important for making this doable for me because i don't get hungry until 4-6 hours after my meals. I do a lot of drinking in the morning before i eat lunch. I have also been sucking on sugar free hard candies (like 3 - 4 a day) just to get a little sweetness and to give myself something to have in my mouth (sugar free gum also works). So that is the SERIOUSLY long version but honestly it really helped me that my psych point blank told me that for someone my size i should be eating 3 meals a day of 1/4 cup in size with 2 snacks if needed. I'm going to keep seeing the psych every now and then just to keep up the motivation i think. She really helped me focus on the task at hand. Oh yeah, and one last thing that helped me. I have been reading "The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients" by Colleen Cook and i have really learned a lot about portion size and eating for satiety. And of course i am a professional lurker on LBT and it such an amazing resource! Again, i'm still learning and tweeking and messing up and growing along this journey, so take the above as what it is... just another glimpse into a fellow bandster's journey.

I thought i'd check back in. I had my 4th fill last week bringing me up to a total of 7.6 cc. I had thought i only had 6.5 cc in there since last time but when he pulled all the liquid out, he came up with 7 cc. So what i'm trying to say is that he put in 0.6 cc this time and it seems to have done the trick. I also realized that i was eating around the band with all the grazing i was doing and have now started eating 3 square meals a day. So far i have been satisfied with very small portions and have not been hungry between meals. As a bonus i kicked my plateau in the butt and have lost 5 lbs already! What really helped me was meeting with the psych at my band doctor's office. She was really knowledgeable about how much i was really supposed to be eating and how to make the band work for me. It really motivated me and now i'm halfway to goal!

Dr. Pinnar's office also does the 3D Body Scans. I believe 5 are included as part of his program fee. I had my first one done pre-op and now that this thread has reminded me, i think i'll ask about having a second one done now that i am about 3 months post-op and closing in on halfway to goal. It was a cool machine. You have to strip down to nothing and put your hair up so that it can be as accurate as possible. It felt like when you get a Mystic Tan done but without the spraying. :smile2: I've never been any good at taking my measurements so this is great for me. Plus, it takes like EVERY measurement imaginable (i.e. inseam, neck, wrist, etc.)

I have had 3 fills and am currently at 6.5 cc in a 10 cc APS Band. This fill has really eliminated the hunger for me which is pretty neat!

I also had a hiatal hernia (small one) fixed during my lap band surgery. I had a lot of left shoulder pain after my surgery that my doctor attributed to the hiatal hernia portion of the surgery (i initially blamed the anesthesia). It really bugged me right after my surgery, and then it dissipated. Other than the shoulder pain and general shoulder/neck achyness (sp?) from the hernia i felt great. No heart burn at all since my surgery! Good luck to you!!! I'm really happy with my band so far. Take advantage of that liquid diet! It's a great way to kick start your loss! And remember, the time before your first fill is for healing, not losing. Any loss during those first few weeks is a bonus! You'll do great!

I hadn't planned to stay overnight, but ended up doing just that. I had a lot more discomfort that i was expecting and it turns out it was mainly because of the shoulder pain caused by the hiatal hernia that the doctor fixed during surgery. Since insurance was paying i just thought i would sleep better in their adjustable bed than i would have trying to prop myself up with pillows at home. I think i made a good choice. Incidentally, i did not know at the time that the pain was from the hiatal hernia part. Frankly, i didn't even know they had done the hernia correction until my first post-op appt. Sure, they told my husband, but did he share that detail with me. Nope! Stupid husband. His excuse? "Not good with details". Yes, this is the man i love.

My appointment was 3 hours long too, and that wasn't even including the follow up appointment the next week where i spent an hour with the Psych herself. The 3 hour appointment was all paperwork. I answered a million multiple choice questions (3 tests ranging from 600 to 150 questions each) and then filled out some short answer forms. It took real stamina to sit through it but it was a very small price to pay. Plus the wonderful ladies who work at Dr. Pinnar's office kept checking in and saying hello. Oh yeah, and i was in a good mood anyway b/c i had previously figured i was going to have to be self pay but the office said that they may as well try to get it covered and it worked! Insurance covered it! No obstacles or anything. Dr. Pinnar's office saved me almost $15K in a matter of minutes! But i digress.. Anyway, I enjoyed the 1 hour appointment and did learn some interesting, but not all that surprising, things about myself from the results of all the tests i had taken. "I'm compulsive? Really, never could have guessed that one!" NOT!! The psych was funny though and she said we could use my compulsion to my advantage. Very practical.