mypov

Hey Kynekke! Bodies are such fickle things aren't they? First off, congrats on your weight loss success! I am similar to you in that if I eat slightly more (between 1000-1300 calories a day) I lose better than eating less than 1000 or more than 1400. I have no idea why my body is so specific but I actually believe it's my daily weigh in that has HELPED me find my optimal caloric intake for weight loss. Anyway, our bodies just don't like to feel deprived. They seem to fight back then. If I could offer a suggestion (which you are of course are welcome to take or leave) it would be to eat healthier items when you do eat more. Such as Protein, whole grain products, fresh fruits/veggies, healthier yogurts instead of the pudding and ice cream etc. Also look for foods with healthy fats (monounsaturated) like you find in olive and canola oils. I have PCOS, which I don't know if you do or not, but I have to be dilligent in whatever amount of calories I eat to have equal amounts of protein-to-carbs at most meals. This has really been helping me control my insulin resistance better- something that had really made me not be able to lose weight in the past. In a typical day I eat 80-100 grams of each. If I eat more than about 20 grams of carbs MORE than I did protein in a day I will just maintain but have NO loss. Maybe you could try to see what your protein-to-carb intake has been??? These ideas are just some things I'm finding to be helpful in my weight loss journey. Good luck and I hope you find something that will help you start losing again!!!

I had a burger today. Well, I had a whopper jr. with no mayo and the top bun removed. I wouldn't say I really ENJOYED it but it was fine. Fast food doesn't have the same appeal to me anymore- but my husband and kids really wanted to go there for lunch so I made due. I believe things like cheeseburgers can still be a SMALL part of your life as long as your band can tolerate it- just on a much much smaller scale than before. There is no food I have given up for good. I just modify it when I do have those things. Mostly I have found a new way of healthy eating that is working for me. You are going through a pretty typical mourning period right now when it comes to food. As you transition, you will not care about those types of food or get the same feelings of satisfaction with them- Thats what happened for me anyway. You will be okay!!!

So before being banded I knew I had some emotional problems that were contributing to my being overweight, but often I assumed it was my weight that was causing me to be so down alot of the time. LAtely however, It's like my feelings are so much intensified. Especially the negative ones. I am really discovering for the first time that every time life got too real, or emotions got to be too intense, I would dull them with food; Fattening food and lots of it. Food has lost its ability to do that now. I can't eat nearly the amounts prior to banding and I even when I do have a bit of the really bad-for-you foods, it doesn't have the same appeal anymore. The habit is still there but since the pleasure level of giving in isn't, I just end up staring at the fridge feeling more discouraged than ever. Anyway I guess I am having a bit of a hard time lately. Anyone else with a similar problem? Suggestions, comments, ideas, or just share what you are going through? Thanks all!

How on earth did I gain 4 lbs in one night?!?!? I have been going over and over it in my mind at what caused it. I looked over my food logs to see if I was just foolin' myself with the portions- I know I drank my Water I was supposed to, had all my protein- but usually when I wake up in the morning I get on the scale and it is 1/2 to 1 1/2 pounds LESS than when I weighed before bed. It's a digital scale and is pretty expensive and logs all previous weights and so I can tell if it had been messed with or something. So but what, did I eat a whole freakin' cheesecake in my sleep??? HAs this happened to anyone else? Am I going to have to fight all over again to re-lose those lbs or will I drop back down to where I was soon.???Thoughts????

Hey all, Just wanted to thank you again for all your kind words. I have PCOS and I think it was rearing its ugly head this past week with the gain. Basically I should have had my cycle but instead I had all the symptoms except the actual....event. Anyway its past now and I am down a pound from my lowest weight. I can't weight until my PCOS is under control. I've always heard that with weight loss it can completely turn many symptoms around. Hope so!! Thanks again!!

Thanks for The info FYI According to the FDA, any food that has 5 or less calories per serving can report as a 0 calorie food. So always watch for that.

Thanks so much for all your words of support. I hope you are all right, it's Water weight or I'm retaining or something. I guess I just live in fear that my body will suddenly outsmart the band and I'll quit losing weight or even worse- gain it all back. And thanks to your advice, I put the scale away for awhile so hopefully when I come back to it I'll be back down. tHANKs a TON!!!

Ok I was a heavy teenager and painfully shy. I never got asked to formal dances EVER. I was out shopping with my teenager sister last night who is preparing for her 5th formal dance since starting highschool (she is a senior). The dresses there were so gorgeous and I started really feeling sorry for myself for never having worn one. So I have found a new goal!!! When I get to my goal weight, I'm going to go to the ball at my university with my hubby (gee he'll love being dragged to that! lol) but I just want to recapture a bit of my youth and experience something I missed out on. What do ya think???

Hey guys, my fill went just fine. No pain or anything. Sandra- The nurse would only give me 1 cc. I don't know yet if I have restriction since of course I just moved to mushies for the rest of today and was on liquids since after the fill yesterday. Anyway- I hope it gives me some restriction, but if not I set another appointment for 3 weeks.

Hey guys! I just got my first fill today! Went perfectly fine, no problems. She put in 1 cc to start and my chocolate protein shakesh are keeping me a little fuller than usual but the nurse said I won't realy know what this fill did for me for a few days- so she scheduled another one for me just in case....So here it goes!!!!

The one thing I regret about this whole thing is that I have to go all the way to Sandy for fills or support groups. SIGH.I really like Dr. Hansen and staff but I have an extremely busy life right now and taking a half of a day to get a fill due to the travelling is no good. For that reason i'm really hoping that the first fill gives me some restriction again because I probably won't be able to schedule another in for another month. Anyway, 2 more days until my first filll and thanks to all of you, I am not worried at ALL. Just looking forward to feeling like I have some control again. how's everyone else doing?

I'm about 6 weeks out. My extended family goes out for dinner for every family occasion and we have a large family. I realized I can't avoid it forever so I just have to make the best (safest) choices possible and keep my portions small. Last week I went to sizzler. I had a salad with some healthy toppings and a lil' ranch dressing. I could only eat about 3/4 cup. Another time I was taken out to IHOP and I ordered a egg and cheese omelet. It came with 3 pancakes. I told the waiter to bring me ONE pancake ONLY (I'm a carb addict and would have tried to eat them all if he'd brought me more than the one). I also asked for a box up front and put all but 1/2 cups worth of omelet into the box before I started eating. I didn't even eat all of the portion I didn't box up. During my pureed stage I was at a mexican restaurant i ordered a bean burrito and told them to leave off the side dishes. Then I opened the burrito and ate some of the bean/cheese mixture. It was YUM. When the waitress cleared my plate she said something like, "Ah, low-carbing huh? Been there." I have heard that salad and things like eggs are usually band friendly and I didn't have any trouble what-so-ever. PS. I made sure to drink a large glass of Water while waiting for the food and then had them clear it once the food got there. They probably thought I was weird but who cares!!!

For those of us who make those little mistakes and beat ourselves up about it, please inspire us to keep working at it and not give up!!!! 1. What was the biggest mistake you've made since banding (probs with food, exercise, follow-up, other band rules etc etc)?? 2. Did you learn the first time you made the mistake or are you still learning to change this behavior? 3. What would you tell others who might also be having this problem? Looking forward to your responses!!!

slipped into a size 26 jeans this morning!!! they are a bit tighter than i am used to because my 28's were falling off! i am still in need of a fill so looking forward to that on the 31st. Whoohoo!!!

These are wonderful, keep 'em coming!!! My biggest mistake (keeping in mind I'm only 5 weeks out) is keeping my calories too low. I hit a plateau last week so I kept lowering my calories but it wasn't until I got frustrated and "gave in" and actually upped my calories that I started losing again. I think my body needed to know there was going to be more fuel coming in before it started letting go of that darn fat again!

This morning I guess I was a little tight because I took a few bites of my breakfast and it did not want to go down. It caused that pain in my chest. I then sipped some water hoping that would help it along. I burped a couple of small burps and it felt like the water (which I could still feel was cold in my chest) was just coming up my esophagus a bit but wasn't going to go down. BAsically I felt I was going to have a productive burp. I have had one sliming episode and did NOT want to PB so I just kept swallowing with my mouth closed hoping that would force the food through(no food or drink). After about 5 minutes I felt some relief like it went down. Now I wonder though, maybe having it go down when it was possibly too big for the stoma or something was more risky to my band than just productive burping it all back up. Anyone know????? Thanks!

Puddin- have you become our resident lower-body lift expert??? I definitely want this done when I am done losing weight. What I'm most concerned about are the drains. How long do you have them for? What are they Draining? Where are they going to? Also, do they JUST lift or do they do some lipo- and this may win a prize for the day's dumbest question but can they ADD fat too my butt??? I look like a walking letter "D" lol. Even my skinny sisters have no butt and gosh darn I WANT ONE....know anything about it? Thanks Puddin! PS- thanks for sharing your story, you really help a lot of people!

Hey ladies, glad to see a new thread; that last one was way too overwhelming for me. I have my first fill on the 31st...least I HOPE they give me a fill. I've lost lost 27 lbs since my preop weigh in, but Nothing in the last week and I'm struggling like crazy to maintain the loss since I am SO hungry!!!! I hope I can hold on but my hubby and daughter both have birthday's this week UGH. I am learning just how impatient I" am. I mean, I was having this great and fast weightloss and this plateau is not making me happy. I hope the first fill gives me restriction again!!!!

I have PCOS too. The whole hair thing drives me crazy. UGH. Anyway I saw some news report lately (can't remember which show, sorry!) that PCOS is now sometimes being called Androgen excessive disorder. Apparently since not everyone with PCOS actually HAS the cysts, but all seem to have an excessive amount of the male hormone Androgen-hence the hairiness, weight gain in the stomach area, fertility issues, male pattern baldness etc etc.... they feel it's a more appropriate name for it. Anywhoo that was my biggest worry when I was banded- that because of PCOS I would not lose weight. I have lost over 30 lbs already though. The loss is slowing down now to about 2 lbs a week. The key has been getting that Protein in, and the Water too, I think. No one has really noticed the weight loss yet or at least they haven't mentioned it- but someone last week said my skin looked like it was "glowing" and I attribute that to my water intake....but I've always had such horrible skin issues that they had no idea how much they made my day!

I was sitting in one of my university classes today and my professor passed around several pages of pictures, each of which had at least 10 different but NORMAL variations of body organs. The one that really made me stop and think is the picture of the stomachs. Each stomach looked drastically different from the rest and the caption under the pictures said something like "A sampling of the many variations of the shape of a stomach in normal, healthy humans." It got me to thinking- we are always comparing our lapband experience to others- why are they losing more weight, or less? Why are they naturally restricted and I need fills all the time? Why can some people eat any type of food and others have a PB after they nibble on some bread? I'm a huge believer in getting other people's opinions and learning from other's experiences- but this was a good reminder that we all come with our own variations in anatomy and our experience is going to be completely unique to us- and it's okay!!! Just a thought!!!

I have tried several so far. I can't stand anything from GNC. The ONLY kind I like is Unjuy.com chocolate protein powder. I didn't like any of thier other flavors. I mix it in my bullet blender with a cup of skim milk. It has 90 calories and 20 grams of protein (before adding the milk) per serving. I usually have one in the morning and drink one at night if I haven't had enough protein that day from my other foods. Unjury has sample sizes for sale too, which is nice.

At my 2 week post op appointment i asked my doctor about my pain that sounds similar to yours. he said it's normal unless it continues and doesn't eventually go away completely. In that case, he said the port may be hitting a nerve. Ask your surgeon about it though for sure. I hope you find some comfort!

I'm very confused. It seems like the more time that goes on, the more I feel restriction. I have no fill yet. At my 2 week post op appointment I told my doctor I felt restriction already and he said he wasn't surprised because I didn't have alot of fat right around the stomach area where the band was placed. (Guess he found the one spot that was fatless!!!:huggie: ) Anyway This week I've been feeling really tight. I don't know why or what's going on. I also feel that gassy pressure feeling again that I did the first few days after surgery. I posted earlier that I had no food/water most of sunday (religious reasons but won't be doing that again if that's the cause) and that I chewed gum on Monday but here it is thursday and I'm still really tight. I wouldn't complain except that the gassy feeling is uncomfortable.... Any suggestions or thoughts on what's going on would be appreciated! Thanks!!!

I went through this after being banded too. I was worried about it but I talked to my surgeon, and then have heard from many others on the board that it has to do with the placement of the camera and all that they do with that side during surgery. I still get minor tugging sensations when I am active for awhile. It's much much better now though. If you're really concerned though, you can always ask your surgeon. Good luck!!!

I've been banded 3 1/2 weeks. I seem to have some natural restriction. Some days I eat around 1000 calories and some days I feel a little tighter and can only manage to eat about 600. Just depends on the day. Anyway I don't want to follow any strict diet but I have changed all my food choices to healthy ones. I eat more on days I feel hungrier and less on days I'm not as hungry. It's working fine for me so far!