ErinMarie

Keeping your band too tight for so many years didn't give you any opportunity to form good eating/lifestyle habits and no doubt contributed to your medical problems. Did your surgeon's office do any pre-op patient education concerning this?

Well you have all really given me food for thought, no pun intended. I took a hard look at the way I eat and what I eat and I am prepared to try again to get it right. When I had just had surgery I think I was afraid of this band, I didn't want to do anything to make it slip or anything to go wrong. I ate exactly as I should and lost weight just as I should. The trouble started when I had an adjustment and the band was just too tight for me. Finally I went back and had it loosened a bit but by then bad habits had sunk in. I have spent the morning writing affirmations and I packed food today accordingly. I went out to eat last night and ate ridiculously too much and this morning I find myself scared I did something to my band. No symptoms just showing a change in my attitude to it I think. Thanks to everyone who replied and made me feel better. I will keep you posted.

Thank you for his well wishes. He did great

Hi everyone I was banded 2 yrs ago and lost a little over 100lbs. Hubby is getting banded tomorrow and I'm so nervoussss. Please send positive thoughts our way. I know the surgery is minor but any surgery gets me nervous.

Hi all, i'm getting banded tomorrow and I am super nervous and excited... Very weird feeling! Anything I should expect 24 hours post surgery? Apart from hoping to wake up looking like Barbie lol!
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Check it out in our magazine here!

Hi, I'm due to have my banding in a week (in quite nervous/excited) Currently doing the pre op diet. Does anyone have any general advice?
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Reaching you goal weight is a marathon, not a nonstop sprint. As long as you are not gaining weight but are continuing to eat healthy and exercise, I wouldn't worry so much. You also have the fill appointment to talk to your surgeon. I have read threads about people who try to "reset" their weight loss by going through all 5 stages of the Bariatric diet again but in a span of 7-10 days. Perhaps someone remembers what it's called?

I went out and bought 4 crop tops today.......just because I could!

(Continuation from the post below ).....I figured once all the skin was removed I wouldn't have hardly anything left. So I agreed to do the staged procedure. Now fast forward to today. It took me the longest time to take my compression bra off and look at them. I was too scared. I had envisioned seeing nothing but some nipples. I was completely shocked at what I saw. Not only do I have boobs, they are soooooo cute and perky! They are just perfect! It blows my mind. I am really debating on not getting the implants. I don't think I want them anymore. I don't have to wear a support bra now, I can wear cute little tops, in don't have to pick them up out of my armpit when I'm laying down. No more tucking them into a bra and having a saggy mess looking back at me! I feel like I'm 14 all over lol!! I never in my life thought I would ever be content with a lift but my PS is truly magical! I just look at them and they are so happy looking lol!! I had to find a way to show her work without being too graphic so I did the best I could. I'm only doing this because I know there are a lot of you struggling with this same body issue. I want you to see that you are not alone! Everyone remarked about how I don't look like I had any loose skin, ect... I was good at hiding it in clothes. I don't have to do that anymore. I feel freed.

@@Elode so you and i have had chats about your Plastics.... and i know you are going to come through this like a champ. I know i have mentioned this before, but if you have a recliner... sleep there or up on the couch. The bed was difficult for me. My TT was so tight that lying down was the worse. Remember the C-Sections... how sitting up was the best.... Same thing doll.
You are going to look so freaking amazing...(you already do). I am super excited for you. Remember the giant kotex (placed them on top of incision for comfort), and keep that compression garment on (i felt better when my stomach was compressed).
http://www.bariatricpal.com/gallery/album/23717-post-tummy-tuck/
My before and at one year
and at 4 years post op

I reject the idea that obesity as a disease is caused solely by lack of discipline and that recovery from obesity is as simple as pushing away from the table. Yet self-discipline is clearly critical in obesity recovery.
What is heart breaking about this research is the apparent extent to which TBL contestants (and millions of others, including us) have been handicapped by their past Herculean efforts to lose weight.
Of course, the heartbreak in this situation doesn't change the tautological truth that it is what it is. Whatever our metabolism is is the metabolism we must work with.
So post-op, let's call an end to all those years of merely working hard and continue to work smarter. IMHO, having WLS is a lot smarter than dieting and exercise alone, although no one who's had WLS would call it "easy." And notwithstanding the benefits of positive self-talk, none of us who've had WLS have any business thinking that pounds once shed are magically "gone forever."
The factors that affect our obesity recovery range from our food choices and how much we eat, meds and supplements, exercise and movement, the emotional and psychological support we find wherever we find it, and the minimizing or avoidance of environmental factors that trigger and destroy our recovery.
I believe that science and medicine will learn more about obesity's causes and will develop more tools to help conquer obesity. I am so glad I finally accepted that doing the same thing over and over while hoping for a different result was just about the dumbest thing I could do.
Courage isn't always doing the hard thing. Sometimes courage is needed to do the different thing.
I sincerely wish those still morbidly obese TBL Season 8 contestants could find the courage to do something different -- weight loss surgery.

The two biggest "stats" I noticed were 1) those that lost the most, the fastest had the biggest drop in their metabolisms (remember this, all you newbies that whine about being slow losers) and 2) the guy that had WLS not only relost weight, but his metabolism actually went up. I think this is good news to all of us lucky folks that had WLS.
If you've ever noticed, WLS specialists, studies and organizations are often lumped together and labeled as "bariatric and metabolic surgery". Having surgery changes our metabolism in a way that was not discussed in this article. One example is the fact that so many diabetic patients get off their medications so quickly after surgery. Their insulin resistance/diabetes actually resolves long before they experience any significant weight loss. The surgery changes more than just restricting our capacity or creating malabsorption. We get extra benefits that traditional "diet and excercise" methods don't provide. I have no doubt that's part of the reason WLS patients are able to maintain their loss so much more successfully than those doing it the "old fashioned way". For some reason our metabolisms don't take as big of a hit.

That is why I spent a year in therapy before surgery, and continue therapy for my food addiction issues. It's a shame so many people suffer even after surgery with head hunger and end up gaining it all back. I think that could be avoided, I care so little about food now, because I found other things in my life to keep me occupied/busy. Have to fix the brain first. That's not easy either, it took me 48 years to even admit I was an addict. Yes, just like a heroin addict. I was hiding food, I was lying about food, I was spending a LOT on food, I am an addict. Simple as that, and once I admitted that, life got a hell of a lot easier.
You made some excellent points too, putting a bandage on a gunshot wound....that's exactly right.

Any idea of how much it costs to get your metabolism measured? I would love to do this, but never realized it was available. Given the study results (even though it is such a small sample), I hope they will at least put more money towards this research.

The New York Times is doubling down on this story, adding more videos, more side-stories.
I think they're on a journalistic mission to destroy The Biggest Loser and its bad, bad "medicine."
Fine by me! I hope that effing TBL "doctor" who trashes WLS goes down like the Titanic.

Also loved this throwaway paragraph in the story:
"On the day of weigh-in on the show's finale, Mr. Cahill and the others dressed carefully to hide the rolls of loose skin that remained, to their surprise and horror, after they had lost weight. They wore compression garments to hold it in."
So let us please not assume that it's only weight lost through WLS that produces loose skin.

Rue 21 has some cute stuff right now, Forever 21, Torrid

How many times have I said OK I need to start over? How many times have I told myself just one more time…and then I’ll start again?
How many times have I committed to recommitting? How many times have I told myself that I will write down every single thing that goes in my mouth? How many times have I told myself I WILL go to the gym today?
How many times have I found myself feeling guilty because of my perceived failure?
I go through these things and more too many times to count. My weight, my surgery, the scale, the gym, food they are always on my mind. When I wake up in the morning I think I need to get a weight today so I know where I am….that’s what’s going to tell me and help me get on track! So I go about my morning routine and the scale shines from the corner waiting for my feet to step up and weigh in but I have just one more thing to do…and I walk past the scale and escape into the next room.
I have defeated the siren call of the scale yet again! Sometimes, I drink coffee and think well now that’s not a “true” weight I just drank fluids! (Really?!) I have to go to the bathroom so weighing in will be better after that elimination of extra weight. (Really?!) Oops I just got dressed for the day including my socks and shoes and I can’t get on the scale now…that’s just too much extra weight and you know…you have to weigh with the least amount of clothing…and my scale needs bare feet and it’s cold and on and on and on…..
I sit at work and my smart watch tells me it’s time to stand…it might as well read “the beatings shall commence”. It starts with the guilt trip, why didn’t you get that weigh in this morning?! It’s been weeks…and you don’t know where you are, and you need to know that. (Really?) Why are you sitting so much..you should be getting up and being more active! You should bring your gym bag in and get your butt down to the gym! (The side commentary often replies with the standard “it’s January and all the resolutioners are in the gym, working out so they can pretend they are keeping their New Year resolution to get healthy. They are clogging things up and you can’t get in there with all that going on!” Really?!) and the beating continues as I guilt myself throughout the day.
I make the “healthy” food choices and for the most part when I am eating “food” I try to make sure I make the healthier choice steering clear of the fatty fried foods, eating my Protein and drinking my Water. So what’s my problem? My problem is that I am perfectionist. It’s all or nothing for me, and either way I have to do it to perfection!
If I have a bad day…well it has to be the badest of bad days. Complete with not only with lack of exercise, but forgetting to take my Vitamins, and consuming lots of all kinds of sugary Desserts. If you’re going to be bad might as well eat the ice cream and chocolate and forget the chicken breast right?!
If I am having good day well you know its perfect right? I wake up and the birds are chirping and the sun is shining and all is right in my world. My feet hit the floor and I can’t wait to step on the scale to see how wonderful I am and what a success I am! (Usually this is where the fantasy begins and ends)
On these days it’s the middle of the road for me. Reality has woken me up and given me that cosmic 2x4 womp upside my head and for a minute the obsessing stops. It’s not about what I did or didn’t do. It’s not about what I ate, but more about what I will do and what I will eat.
I don’t need to beat myself into submission to be perfect, I just need to live for this. Right here right now this very moment. I need to stop. Just stop, and be present. Right here right now. Nothing more and nothing less.
Yes some of those moments are going to be “bad” ones and some are going to be “good” ones. All that really matters is the reality of all of these moments. I don’t have to dwell on the past or the future I just have to live in the now.
It’s really all I am capable of these days. I don’t know what it is in me that strives for this “perfection” it is now and has been a flaw of mine. While it is true that in many ways it helps me strive to learn and grow and better myself, and it is also true that in many ways it holds me back and limits me, and it will even sabotage my success, when I let it (or use it as an excuse!).
I will look at my weight loss to date and I say I have ONLY lost….as though it is a negative. When I should be focusing on the fact that I have LOST that weight and it has not returned.
So today as I write this confession, and my smart watch is beeping at me to stand up and move around and I am taking that time to do just that and to look at it in a positive way. Not saying telling myself I am a failure for not getting to the gym today, but saying hooray you are moving more than you did before!
I am not going to beat myself up for sleeping later this morning, I am going to allow myself the extra Zzz because my body and my soul needed it. I am not going to beat myself up for not stepping on the scale this morning, instead I am going to commit to resetting the darn thing tonight and setting it up to move forward.
I am setting a reminder on my phone to prompt me to weigh in and take measurements and I am scheduling time for ME. Yes I am putting an actual appointment on the calendar to do things that I need to do for me. Including making lunch, getting to the gym, and having dinner out with friends. It’s important, and if I feel the perfection monster trying to sabotage me I’m going to come back here and refocus on the moment and get back to reality of being perfectly imperfect one moment at a time.

I don't know WHAT I was thinking. A friend of mine caught me in a weak moment, and I agreed to teach a class on The Five Love Languages the day before Valentines Day, for a local kink group.
I've taught this class several times in the past.
I can see how this one is going to go...
Q: Are you in a relationship now?
A: No, I just broke up with my man of 4 years because he was no longer speaking my love languages.

I suspected immediately when I had my first episode of morning sickness. Not long after my sense of smell went into overdrive and even walking into the produce section of Safeway was impossible from the nauseating smell of raw fish at the fish counter on the other end of the store. The next day I found myself sobbing uncontrollably at the littlest things, even when I wasn't actually sad. Just yesterday a student of mine looked at me funny while I was teaching and I found myself with tears streaming down my face.
At first I was so excited, but then I started to worry. My belly wasn't growing with a little bundle of joy inside, it was shrinking rapidly. Am I having a reverse-baby somehow? Is that even a thing? Not to mention the fact that my wife and I haven't even had sex in the 20 months since our first child was born due to some complications from an incompetent surgeon. Maybe I'm not pregnant after all.
Fortunately, my 1-month post WLS appt was late last week and I determined to asked my doctor about it. He smiled sadly and assured me that everything would be okay before he went to check my bloodwork. When he came back in, he assured me that indeed, my estrogen levels, as well as several other female-associated hormone levels, were consistent with pregnancy. "Congratulations Smye, you're pregnant, but without the baby at the end."
That's right folks, a man, with many of the symptoms of early pregnancy due to rapid weight loss causing a mass-dump of estrogens into the bloodstream. Apparently it will pass once the loss slows down (hopefully no time soon).
To the ladies out there, in no way do I intend to say I know what it is like to be pregnant, I've only gotten a tiny taste here, but I hope you enjoyed.

@@dhrguru
i say NSV QUALIFIED~!

So I debated posting about this.. but I was in such awe over this, and I think only my fellow female WLS peeps can appreciate this. (And i'm grown, married, blah, blah, blah...).
Hubby and I were having some special time. Off he went to "lady town" (Grey's Anatomy fans should get that). And I realized... I can *see him*. My stomach was not blocking my view of him. For the slightest second it seemed awkward cause, I've just never had that full view before. It was a serious, momentary, mind trip!
So...NSV qualified, or too risque?

Now, I'm pretty sure nearly every WLS female has heard this one at some stage in her life. So I bet none of you think to say it to someone else because there's always that "oops" factor.
Just had my surgery. That first night my CNA wandered in first thing in the morning, obviously close to tears, and told me one of her patients told her she looked "seven months pregnant." Let me tell you, she was probably a size 10 or lower and definitely flat in the abdomen area. She'd been super sweet to me during my stay, so I offered to go punch the offending patient (joking!) which cheered her up and got her to laugh a bit.
Seriously, who says these things? I guess the CNA could have said something snarky, but she was so sweet to me that I find that difficult to believe. In the end, I'll chalk it up to a mishearing.
Still, a WLS patient telling someone else she looks pregnant.

As someone who has an overweight daughter and obese son (both grown), here's my advice:
Say nothing and just lead by example.
Both my kids know they are overweight, as did I. I was ready to do something about it when I myself was damn good and ready, not because someone else told me I needed to. Pointing it out does nothing but make the other person feel even worse about their weight. Imagine if someone took you aside and said "We need to talk about your muffin top".
No. Just...no. Accept them for who they are.