Wheetsin

The idea behind not drinking before you eat is so that you avoid, by drinking, reaching the point that you feel full before you have the chance to actually eat anything. Many bandsters, when they get good restriction, find they get the sense of satisfaction off basic liquids. Recommending that someone doesn't drink, say, 30 minutes before eating ensures that the liquid has a chance to drain fully and any sensations of being full have a chance to reside before the actual meal. I didn't say that very clearly, hope it makes sense. Likewise, even with "good" restricion (not too tight), it's possible that there are times when you will get the full sensation from a liquid and the liquid may remain in your pouch for an extended time. The waiting period also gives the liquid a chance to drain, so that you don't reach discomfort on your first bite of food. Eating around the band - you've gotten good answers. Basically it's finding a way, through your eating habits, to keep from losing weight even though you're banded.

Lots of possibilities here. For one, having a band doesn't mean you eat less, or eat better. We all know it's entirely possible to have the band and gain weight. Sometimes people are aware that what they're doing can cause this, and sometimes they are not - and can be attributing their own unrecognized bad behaviors to "stall" or "nothing I do works". The band is kind of like a lawnmower. With effort, dedication, and comittment your lawnmower can help you have a beautiful lawn, BUT not unless you're doing your part to keep it watered, fertilized, etc. You can't put a lawnmower in the garage, and then wonder why your lawn isn't fantastic. The band is the same way. It can help you (I call it artificial willpower) achieve your weightloss goals, but without you doing your share, it will not do anything but sit there. Another - most of us will find along our journey a period of time where the weightloss does stop, or at least slow. This should be expected. Sometimes the body just needs to re-adjust, sometimes we will be able to lose fat mass without a significant yield on the scale, etc. (Ask how many have lost sizes without losing pounds and you'll get a large number of hands going up). This is not a "band" problem. EVERY weightloss effort I gave an honest try to, regardless of the gimmick behind it, came with significant plateaus. Another suggestion - realize that this is a support board. It's not a "generic day to day life" board. Most people come here because they have problems and want help. What you see posted here should not be taken as an anecdote of the average band experience. Maybe 2/50 people experience some kind of extra challenge or hardship. You're only seeing those 2, you aren't seeing the 48 behind them. Another possibility, there's a lot of unspoken story on messageboards. In our case, let's say someone posts that they've been banded, lost weight initially, but it has been a year since they lost anything. They can't, for the life of them, figure out why, can we help? And maybe 20 posts into trying to help them, they suddenly share that they had all their fill removed, or that they have a thyroid disorder, or that they didn't like yakking food up so they've switched their diet to ice cream and orange juice. You always have to take things with a chunky grain of salt, especially mystery situations. The best you can get to is possibilities, and that means that reality can be changing minute by minute. In other words, you will rarely know the full story behind what's going on, so -- how much sense does it make to invest it in emotionally? Good luck. :smile:

My surgeon does the shots, but mainly for bypass patients, and usually only when they complain of lethargy. I never needed them, guess I could get it enough to take care of energy.

I don't have a sweet tooth, but I had my share of cravings. How I handle it? When I crave something, I have it. My personal belief is that it's better to satisfy a craving with a reasonable amount of the food, than to deny the craving, have it grow into an obsession, and then end up eating the whole container.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror today, just out of the shower and nekkid as can be, and noticed the slightest, faintest hints of my rib cade showing on my upper chest, noticed that the divet at the base of my throat is getting quite deep, and that when I looked over my shoulder, I could actually see shoulder blades AND faint impressions of some vertebrae. I thought, "Wow, that's something you don't see on fat people!" and got kind of happy. And then my eyes lowered, to the gobs of fat and skin still hanging on my hips and upper thighs, and I thought, "Umm, that is..." I'm trying hard not to sound like the girl who complains because she's losing sizes too fast, boohoo, got your sympathy right here... but this really sucks. I'm almost "normal" from my belly button up and my knees down, but in between I'm an utter, globby mess. I'm sitting here wearing a 14 shirt, which has some extra room, and 20 pants, which really don't, until you get to the baggy legs. It's just a little bit of piss on my wheaties that I'm not losing a bit more proportionately. Let me be a 16 all over, would you?!

What if you explained it from a health perspective, but in terms a child would understand, so that the thoughts of self-worth weren't necessarily associated? "Mommy has <illness> and this is going to help her feel better"? or "Mommy has a hard time breathing when she goes up the stairs" or "Mommy can't run around with you as much as she would like to"? I don't have kids yet, so I'm just pulling this out of my butt, no idea how kids would actually respond. :thumbup:

More than two years out I still slime. It's an unavoidable occurence when our bodies are trying to get something down, or preparing to bring something up. Think of it as lubrication. :thumbup: I suspect this is something I will have until I die, or lose my band, whichever may come first.

Oh just saw capsule, for some reason I read it as caplet, and assumed you meant tablet. You can't crush a capsule, but (sometimes with a large degree of effort) you can poke them open. If they're soft it's much easier than if they're the hard ones. Again, you'll want to check with your doctor on your ability to do this. There's one thing in capsule form I will break open, then mix with juice and drink, and it still burns my mouth/throat for a good 5 hours. This is "ok", because of what I'm taking, but some things can cause damage (hence they're inside protective coating). Do check. :thumbup:

If it's not enteric coated, you can just crush it. Doesn't always taste the best, but there are things you can do to help, eg. don't mix it with something like applesauce you have to chew, sprinkle it into drinkable yogurt and spoon it down your throat. You won't want to crush enteric coated meds, so be sure to check with your pharmacist or doctor on this one. If it is enteric, maybe it's small enough to get down anyway, or you could be a situation where the size of mandatory medication determines the amount of fill you're able to get. I've tried something the size of a Tylenol, cut into quarters, and couldn't pass it. But others share stories of taking full size vitamins with no problems. Like most things band, it's a matter of personal tolerance levels.

This soon after surgery, I'd say do the best you can and don't sweat it. It was a good 4 - 5 days after surgery before I could come close to getting recommended food, supplements, water, etc. I was doing good to down half a bottle of water and half a little lunchbox cup of Jello in an entire day.

Hehe, I tried to Google some pics for you but kept just getting Jachut's avatar. I'm 15 weeks but not noticeably showing yet, maybe I would be if I had a flat stomach to begin with, but with this mass of loose skin, who knowns when I'll look preggo. I'm fairly normal in the upper torso where my port is and not a sign of it so far. The degree to which it shows will probably depend a lot on where the port was placed. Mine is up high, just an inch or two lower than my bra band, so we'll see.

My husband won't look at my scars, and when I still had my staples in he'd literally turn his head. He won't feel my port, etc. For him, it's creepy to feel something foreign in the body, which I can kind of relate to - I don't like to feel it on other people. Another side of it for him is that the scars remind him that I was hurt, the port reminds him that someone cut me open, and any thoughts of someone doing something to me bugs the crap out of him. ETA: I have a large scar on my leg from when I was about 12. I'm pale, and it's faded, so it's not terribly obvious. He just the other day asked me what it was from. We've been married 10 yrs. I asked him how he just now saw it, yes it's hard to see but living together for 11 yrs... he was like "I thought I saw a scar so I just quit looking and thinking about it."

I'm in Missouri. We only have one Ethiopian restaurant that I know of, but tons of Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, even a Polynesian.

Hint - don't do the numbing shot. It hurts much more than the tiny poke from the fill needle. Many of us found that right around the "50 left" mark we hit a sort of involuntary complacency, where we weren't done, but we were so much better, and maybe even semi-normal... I started at nearly 400, we're the same height, so my journey to "50 left" took a while, but I still hit it. Now I'm like "35 left" and trust me, it doesn't get any better!

Velcro three-panel folder (flap, front, back). I had so many of those... hehe.

This may help:

I don't sleep on my stomach so I don't have that pain, but there is an area called the xyphoid process that people often confuse with the band because of where it's located and its prominence as weight is lost. When you lay on your back, it's the big "bump" kind of where your ribs come together.. the "tail" on the sternum. Is that about where you're hurting? A lot of people don't know it exists, lose weight, see it poking out, and absolutely swear they can see/feel their bands. It's made of softer stuff, so I'd think it would be entirely possible to have it be a pressure point when sleeping on your stomach. Just one thought...

Just my thoughts: Slippery slope at best. Unless you require DNA testing, and then have a bank with EVERY potential donor's DNA in it, which isn't going to happen, we can't even get thumbprints let alone someone's genetic code. Even then there's not necessarily a way to know who the father is. A woman could easily say "product of a one night stand, didn't get his name." I don't think you can safely DNA type a fetus, so there's no proof of paternity. So a man comes forth and volunteers that he's the father, you have to: 1) assume she went to a clinic he would know about, skipping cities would be an easy way around that, as would not telling him you're pg 2) mandate DNA matching, and who pays for that? Not to mention the difficulty in mandating it 3) have some way to prove it was the product of consentual sex, unless you'd advocate for forced term in incest/rape cases, and it's be really easy to say "he raped me, I just didn't report it" 4) need contingency for an impasse or 5) plan in place for an impasse, if either is against does it become an auto yes or no? If an auto no, and the woman is "forced" to carry, does the man share liability for extreme circumstances she may opt to take? Does the man have to assume full financial/custodial liability because of the mother's good faith effort to end the pregnancy? If delivery results in death, does the man become liable for civil or criminal punishment? etc. 6) I see a lot of spiteful men, and/or women, saying "no" just to make sure the other doesn't get their way, which doesn't necessarily put anyone in a better position 7) unwanted baby is born, power struggle continues, strain on social systems, etc. 8) you'd need a way for all of this to happen by X time, X being whatever term was considered allowable for the abortion, or it becomes automatic prolife legislation if it cannot possibly happen before, let's say, viability - and if DNA tests became mandatory, and someone had to privately fund them, this could be a very real scenario (the time factor was one of many significant glitches in Adams' bill).

There's no technical point where it becomes impossible to lose fat or no one would ever starve to death. But our bodies came become VERY resistant to losing fat. I've been through months at a time. I'd welcome a 2 month period about now. If you enjoy the exercise, I don't think you necessarily need to cut down. 3 hours a day isn't totally excessive if you have the time for it, and it sounds like you make the time for it, so good for you! That's truly awesome. Maybe you've reached a point where your caloric intake is exactly what you need to run your body, and hit an unintentional maintenance phase. Look up your BMR, and then compare that to what you're eating daily. IF there's a deficit in favor of the BMR, then look to other causes. Changing things up is good. If you do the same exercise routine, do something new. If you eat the same ratios, try to change them up. If you eat the same types of foods, try to add higher or fewer calorie foods. If you avoid carbs, do a carb feed. You can also try upping your Water, it helps your metabolism in more ways than I can list. And of course, sometimes it's a matter of just being patient. Also keep in mind that no change on the scale doesn't mean you aren't continuing to drop fat mass. I've lost entire sizes with no change on the scale at all. Scale measures your entire mass, and really has nothing to do with fat composition. Good luck!

It really isn't as "we have it so much harder" when you compare to other addictions. Smokers can't just "avoid" triggers. Maybe by never seeing smoking friends again, avoiding access to cigarettes by never leaving the house or going to a store, gas station, etc. Never driving because someone next to you may be smoking and that could trigger something just as watching a food commercial or seeing bad items at the buffet. Never going somewhere with smokers so they'd never be tempted to ask for one... you get the idea. Think of it as very similar situations. Both people have to face their addictions and cravings, have to find a way with it being part of daily life, and have to find in themselves the ability for behavioral change to be successful. Only smokers don't have readily available "SLS" surgeries to help them be able to say no to 8/10 cigarettes, or feel satisfied after smoking 1/10 of it. :smile2: Did your pre-op psychologist work through any of these issues with you, or have you sought help post-op? A good therapist really can do a lot to help. (They're not all good, though, have to use much discretion.) No one can make thoughts disappear, you will always have thoughts and there's always the possibility that one will just so happen to be about a food subject. But you can change behaviors, find out your root causes for overeating (they vary, e.g. most people are emotional eaters, but I am not, a concept emotional eaters have a hard time with and vice versa). When you know why, you can start working on fixing it. If you classify your need with food (or some sensation directly or indirectly linked to the food) as an "addiction" - and believe it's an addiction, then it's pretty obvious mental and physical balance has to come from somewhere, and if we could all take care of that ourselves, we wouldn't have any fat psychiatrists. BTW, search for "addiction" and you'll find many others in your same boat, as well as info on the addiction vs. not addiction debate, what people have done to find success, current challenges, etc. It's a long-standing topic here.

There have been several threads where the OP listed many restaurants and asked us what we order at each place. You might want to look for some of those, they contain good info. In general, I order whatever I would have ordered pre-op, except for red meat which I've given up. If I'm really tight, or not sure hwo tight I am, I will generally go with something safe like Soup. If I'm not terribly hungry it's an a la carte baked potato or a side/add like when you can add 3 shrimp for $7. Most often I get whatever entree sounds good, usually something seafood, chicken, or turkey. Whatever I can't eat comes a few more meals, or DH will eat it.

That's kind of what stuck feels like - you need to burp but you can't, but there's also usually pressure and discomfort when you're stuck. And if you're truly stuck, you wouldn't be able to get liquids down, they would just add to the pain and eventually you'd backfill. Does the feeling change at all maybe half hour after finishing a thin liquid like Water?

Instead of trying to be on top in a "traditional" way (which seems like it would strain your thigh muscles if you're having a hard time fitting), try more of a long angle, kind of like you're the guy. Also make sure he holds his legs together, that will give you less distance to cover, and if he can hold his knees up, like knees bent, that will give you something to push against. At my highest weight I did have some discomfort in a tradition (movie style) on-top position. My stomach interfered with being able to sit up completely, and he would fall out when I tried. I would still do it, but it's so much easier now. Also, try sitting on top of him backwards, so he sees the back of your head. This makes for a lot less of his girth to get your legs over, and gives you some interesting options with how you can move. :blushing:

Full for me sometimes feels like pressure, but mostly feels like "not hungry" that over time turns into a feeling like I just ate a large meal. If you're feeling light-headed and nauseous, I would say eat less and eat it slower. It sounds like you might be pushing yourself, but you want to stop eating while you still feel ok. If you're eating a cup and feeling poorly, try stopping at 3/4 cup. Many (perhaps most) bandsters find they're full before a cup is done. It is a different feeling before than after, but to tell you the truth, I'm far out enough that I don't remember pre-op full. Pre-op full was likely closer to "stuffed". I remember thinking they were very different sensations, but I don't have the detailed recall to tell you exactly how. Yes, restriction is possible without a fill. Especially the first few weeks after surgery, before your swelling goes all the way down. While you're still swollen, or bulked up on fluids, you're likely to have more restriction than when you're healed. And for some, the band itself - empty - is just enough to give some restriction.

Norfin trolls, I think they were called. Also popular were the little fuzzy teddybears (very short fuzz). We put them on pens, turned them into pins, etc. Almost as cool as scratch & sniff stickers!