NanaRenan

Okay -- not sure how this will turn out. I'm more intimidated by trying to upload pictures than I was climbing up on the operating table! :wink2: These shots with my GrandDoll, Sloane, show a change. Anyhow, the one in pink is on my birthday a month before surgery. The other was in May of this year with like 80 lbs gone.

Everyone looks AWESOME! I'm jealous, thrilled and inspired all at the same time!

Hey Gang!! Sorry to have gone AWOL on you. Life just got REALLY busy and, with my new and improved body -- much more enjoyable!! :biggrin2: Congrats to ALL OF US! One year!! All I can say is "WOW"!!!!:cursing: I was striving to hit 100 lbs lost by my bandiversary, but I'll take 91. Just a little over half-way. I've lost an average sized 4th grader! First time in 18 years I weigh less than my hubby! I can romp and play in the backyard with my grandson. I'm finally getting to the point where I can actually consider plastic surgery options and doctors!!! There's so much more. I am so blessed. Thank you ALL for your support.

Brava, Lisa -- and not "Silly" at all!! I agree with everyone else's comments -- people who don't care about you are too jealous/bitter to give you a compliment and people who DO care about you are trying to decide if it's rude to mention weight at all. (I've LOL through the years at the lengths people will go to avoid discussing WEIGHT issues around a fat person -- whereas others will talk of nothing else!) I thrive on the compliments because I don't SEE it when I look in the mirror. Even though at - 91 lbs I'm buying 18s instead of 28s, I still can't SEE anything but a FAT me when I look in the mirror. *shrug* That'll just take more time, I guess. But hang in there. You're doing great!

WRONG!! I'm pretty sure it has to exhibit some form of TASTINESS to be a "snack". Anything that's 'gross' cannot carry that esteemed label. :cursing: Back on topic: I'm getting good results from adding a serving of Activia yogurt into my morning Breakfast shake. I was skeptical of their "14 day" guarantee, but by golly, it's working!!! I'd played around with foods and Fiber and Water and found that wasn't helping with TIMING. It might make things more comfortable, but didn't help regulate the frequency. But the Activia is accomplishing that.

I was on meds for many years for reflux. Tho't I'd never need another one after surgery!! And for 11 months that was true, but in July it just randomly reappeared....not following a fill or due to anything I can finger. Just "I'm BAAAACCKKK!" Tho't getting a fill would help, so I had one two days ago. Haven't slept more than about an hour at a time since. :-( But I guess I'm relieved to read this thread and realize it's not all that uncommon -- I was afraid it was an indication of slippage or erosion or something. Now I guess I'll just see my GP and get back on the Protonix.

Hey there. Understand your frustration -- truly I do. I had to do a lot of that and was denied three times after jumping through all the hoops. But we persevered and I got the surgery -- 1 year later I've lost 91 lbs total. Hang in there. And don't worry about losing too much -- it won't disqualify you from the surgery if you lost 20 or 30 lbs. They just want to prove that you CAN and WILL follow dietary guidelines after surgery. Because lets face it, the band won't make you choose broccoli over Blue Bell Homemade vanilla -- you still have to make that choice.

For me its not so much about how much I can eat, but how soon am I hungry again. The quantity of food above the band won't change much with fills. What DOES change is how soon after the meal are you back in the kitchen hunting food. I'm very restricted (liquids only) until early afternoon when it starts to ease up. By dinner time I can eat "normal" -- but my dinner should keep me full until bedtime. If I find myself grazing a couple hours after supper -- it's time for a fill!

I was banded 11 months ago today. Here's what my weight loss pattern looks like. I hit a NEW low -- change my ticker, tell everybody -- then I immediately put back on a pound or two. And there I SIT for two-three-four weeks. Then suddenly, I'll get on the scales and will have lost three-four-five-or six lbs creating a NEW low -- so, I change my ticker, tell everybody..... You get the picture, right?? Don't let the scales be the BE ALL/END ALL of your weight loss. Typically when you're losing pounds you're not losing inches and vice versa. SOOOO....keep a few of your tightest pieces of clothing tucked aside from the rest of your wardrobe. When you're tired of seeing the same numbers on the scales for the second week running -- go try on all those pieces of clothes. I BET you will find some of them fitting better!!

Okay -- here's a topic I haven't seen discussed on LBT. And it may be something only "I" have to deal with. But I tho't I'd ask anyhow.... For those of you who've lost 50-75 lbs and more. Do you find you have POSTURE issues with your NEW body? If only I hadn't been such a brat as a child. My mother was very< VERY old school and was always correcting my posture. (Especially while I was practicing the piano.) To show my contempt for anything she approved of -- up to and including POSTURE! -- I made sure I was slouching horribly every time she looked at me. The idea was that she would get tired of saying it before I would get tired of doing it. Well -- that was a stupid battle of wills that neither of us won! But anyhow -- I never had very good posture and then after 18 years of carrying more than double my ideal weight around, my posture REALLY sucks!!! I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror sometimes and it's absurd! Of course it's greatly exaggerated by droopy boobs and a large panniculus. But is there anything I can do to improve it while I wait to get to the PS phase? WHY didn't I listen to my mother?? Do I need to become LIKE my mother (who, btw, was very obese, but always had excellent posture!)...? Hold on -- I think I'm gonna go wake up my 10 y/o Grand Doll and her 19 y/o Tia Frijole and tell them to "STAND UP STRAIGHT, YOUNG LADY!":tt2:

Here's something for those who like Ranch Dressing. I've used this recipe for 28 years!! And you can adjust it CALORICALLY to suit your preferences! 1 cup of mayo (regular, light or fat free) 1 cup of sour cream (regular, light or fat free OR substitute plain yogurt!) 1 cup of small curd cottage cheese 1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix Stir together and chill. Great with raw veggies -- but also good with CHIPS! Everyone loves it -- not just dieters! AND -- take some and thin with milk to the desired consistency to make fresh, yummy salad dressing!!! NOTE: Don't put in the blender!! The cottage cheese gets 'grainy' if run through a blender! Enjoy!

No -- there's no problem with fat relative to the BAND. I'm sure it's just a diet/healthier eating issue.

My port flipped -- probably when I got a stomach bug in Feb and had dry heaves for 10 hours! UGH! Anyhow, it was moved up under my left breast and stitched to the muscles over my ribs. That baby ain't goin' NO WHAR!!!

Since it will be your FIRST fill, you will probably be okay. They won't 'overfill' you. Now my second fill was done while I was in surgery (had to have my port relocated) so we didn't 'test' it. I was SUPER restricted. I loved losing like 9 lbs in 5 days, but I was getting weak and a little dehydrated. I was going out of town and tho't it would be great to go with no appetite -- but didn't want to pass out or anything, so I went for a wee bit of an unfill and it was great.

I'm not a yogurt eater and dressings I go 'light' on but mayo and butter I eat the real thing. I decided many years ago that I'd rather have a half a teaspoon of real mayo than a cup of the other stuff. And butter -- I figure God gave us butter, man made margarine. Again -- give me a teeny smidge of the real stuff over all the other I can eat and I'll be more satisfied.

Good advice!! I use my "snacking" as a barometer for whether or not I need a fill or I just need to check my "habits". If I had good restriction at a fill a few weeks or months back and I now find myself "grazing" in the evenings -- I need to look to see if I am following the rules at meal time -- Heavy on the Protein, then veggies with little or no carbs. No drinking for half hour before and an hour after. That SHOULD hold me til bedtime. If it ISN'T, or I find myself thinking "I should go to bed early before I start eating again!" then it's probably time to get a new fill. I don't wait for the scales to tell me when it's time for a fill. I didn't get this surgery to lose weight -- I got the band so I would not be tormented by HUNGER while I lost weight!!! Think about it! Think back over every diet you've ever tried and failed -- what derailed you. The hunger! Some of it is head hunger (boredom, years of conditioning, etc.) you can distract yourself out of that. But if you're really and truly hungry, then your pouch is emptying too fast and you need some tightening.

It does get better. In my first few weeks my brain was CONSTANTLY screaming at me, "Wait! Don't walk away from the plate! It's not EMPTY! You can't POSSIBLY last to the next meal on only THAT!" Even as I was fighting to keep down the little bit I HAD eaten. I felt full and stuffed but my brain was unconvinced! Whew!! That's when I understood the meaning of HEAD HUNGER! And to make matters worse -- other people comment, too? If I've asked him ONCE, I've asked him a hundred times but my hubby will still ask, "Is that all you're gonna eat?":sneaky: Don't get me wrong -- he's plenty supportive, but he's just amazed that I can function on so much less food than I ate BEFORE surgery. Side note: He's actually tacked on about 20 lbs since my surgery BECAUSE instead of splitting Entrees in half when we eat out, I only eat a couple of ounces and he's been finishing the plate! LOL Hang in there!

I would love a thorough but simple explanation for that, too. But it just IS. Gravity while you sleep...maybe? I can't get much of anything down before early afternoon. Like the Protein shakes I drank after surgery -- now I can take about two sips and it takes a half hour for that to go down! Things improve as the day goes on. By dinner I can eat most any kind of food as long as I take small bites and chew well. But I absolutely would not be able to handle "last night's" leftovers until late afternoon/evening unless it was SOUP! :biggrin2:

I lost 20 lbs in the pre-op phase and tho't that was pretty good. It wasn't enough -- my liver was still so big and unwieldy my "20 minute" procedure took 2 hours and the surgeon told my husband if I hadn't already been through so much to get there that day, he would have ended the surgery and we would have done a gastric bypass at a later date. Out of pity he kept working and was finally able to place the band. So in addition to proving you ARE capable of following a diet plan/instructions....every pound you lose BEFORE can only improve the outcome of your surgery!!

At the very least that guy is an INSENSITIVE BOOB and an incompetant doctor. You should report him....maybe if enough people report him it might save him from really harming someone in the future. And yeah! For what a fill costs you should ALWAYS have a new needle! Argh! (((hugs))) Sorry you had to go through that! That is AWFUL.

Aivey, Once you're past the post-op stages of liquids and mushies, pretty much anything is okay IF YOU CAN TOLERATE IT. I have my Sonic Diet vanilla Cokes quite regularly with no ill effects -- save that they displace the Water I SHOULD be drinking instead!! :thumbup: I can eat both rice and pasta if I take it slow and easy -- BUT, since Protein is so important, I usually focus on my meat and veggies and that leaves very little room for rice or pasta (same with potatoes and bread). IRONICALLY all the things that HELPED me put on the weight in the beginning and things I couldn't leave alone enough to significantly lose weight. What a coinkydink!

It is a wise one. Not that drinking will cause you any 'problems', but it will work against you in that it helps wash the food down quickly -- sometimes before your brain gets the message that your pouch is now full. After I was a few months post-op and hit my first "stall" on the scales, I started examining and realized that I had started sipping a little here and there as I ate. I recommitted to sticking to the 1 hour rule and NOT sipping at all during a meal. My husband and family immediately noticed how much my portions shrank -- instantly. Since I'd been slowly inching up post surgery, they hadn't noticed I was probably eating more than the recommended amounts -- and honestly, I wasn't totally aware of it either. But when I went back to checking my drinking it was apparant. Sort of like when you diet and weigh/measure your portions or journal every bite -- it's a checks and balances sort of thingy. AND it insures you're getting better nutrition as most beverages we have with food do not provide any nutrition.

I also have BiPolar2 and it was a non-issue for me. I'm non-medicated and high-functioning. My family and I have just learned to cope with it. So it didn't come up in my psych eval and I didn't bring it up. Therefore, I don't have any advice to offer, BUT, I can and will say a prayer for you!! PM me if you need to chat.

Hi, Mary Rose....and congrats on the wedding. My daughter got married two weeks ago. Fortunately, it was a beach wedding so I didn't feel the need to don my Spanx. I have the one KeliTx mentioned and it IS a serious undergarment.

Just curious if there was anyone out there in this area looking for some support. I've met one gal, Calanne. She's great. I tho't we might get a few more together and form a support group. LMK~