ErinMarie

There is a rumor that a drug rep is bringing my office lunch today... if there are no good choice then I'll go to the cafeteria and get something more substantial other than Soup and salad. Thanks!

Well... I talked with my husband last night about wanting to do the 5:2 and he was pretty upset that I would be not eating dinner with him on a night he was actually home, so I've decided my fast days will be best taken on days he has class in the evenings. I'm going to try to do them on Mondays and Thursdays instead.
I'm leary after yesterday...I forgot how much it sucks to be so hungry! Hopefully when I get a fill next month that will ease up the hunger pains.

The longer I do this the easier it gets. I'm going to a movie tonight and committing right here and now to forget about popcorn. I'll get a bottle of Water. I also have time before the movie to eat a sensible dinner. Have a great day, everyone!

I had my band placed six months ago. Since then, I have lost somewhat over 90 pounds. I've changed the way I eat, and the way I look at life. I am so happy that the surgery was available to me. I don't know what I would've done if I had continued to live in the food. My life was miserable, and I was merely surviving.
Today, I look forward to getting outside to walk every day. I look forward to healthy food. I enjoy foods that I never would have looked twice at before. Hummus? Yes! Delicious! I never thought I would be able to turn away from fried food. But I find myself choosing healthy food over unhealthy food more and more each day.
I started the weight loss surgery process one year ago in September. One of the things that was heavy on my mind was what I had to give up. I remember being very sad on Thanksgiving thinking that I was not going to ever be able to indulge in greasy turkey skin again. Yes, I really was depressed about that. What I knew intellectually, but didn't feel in my heart yet, was that by the following Thanksgiving that would not matter. Yes, I knew it in my head. But I was still sad. I was starting a process that was going to leave behind all of my addictive behaviors.
I am not the perfect WLS patient. I still want to do things "my way". The difference is, many times now, I will simply follow directions. I still want to do it my way, but many times I am able to say, let's just try it their way.
I found myself in a food rut over the past month. I was consistently eating enough junky food that my weight-loss had stalled. My past patterns would have been to give up on myself. Slide back into disordered eating. Hide from everyone. Reach for the food over and over again.
Instead, I came here to these boards. I asked some questions. I got some advice. I tried something new. I ditched my scale for a week. I cleaned up my eating. I listened to my body. And maybe most importantly, I found help outside of these boards as well. I go to a few different support groups, not all for weight loss. I find that the phrase, "it's not what you're eating, it's what's eating you" applies to me. I am able to look inside, and uncover some of the reasons why I reach for food.
Knowing why doesn't solve my problems. But knowing why, acknowledging that, and allowing it to be the truth, helps me to deal with it. If I can identify it, I can change it. Eating my problems away never ate my problems away. It only very temporarily masked my problems from my awareness. When I would come back out of my food coma, my problems were still there, sometimes worse, and I had self blame and shame to add on top of that.
Today, my recovery from disordered eating is twofold. I am addressing the underlying reasons for why I reach for food. I am also addressing the physical reality of my disordered eating by allowing the lap band to help me remain in control of my portions.
I don't think I could do one without the other and still have success. I am grateful that I don't have to.
For any newcomers here, know that there is hope. I am living proof. I have my life back after decades of simply hanging on.

Panera! I'm eating half of a turkey sandwich (or less because this bread is kicking my ass right now) and half or less of a cookie. 500 calories goes by fast!

Wow you have had an impressive loss!! Please cut yourself a little slack. Look at what you wrote. Look where you were ten months ago. This is not a race. You've changed your whole life. You're amazing ! A little slump is just that. If you're not going to the gym right now try to do other things like walk around the neighborhood on your work break. shake up your food plan a bit. I'm doing that right now because I developed an affinity for fried chicken strips and it was doing me no favors. We're gonna do this! We're in it for the long haul. Stay connected here and keep moving forward!!

There is a rumor that a drug rep is bringing my office lunch today... if there are no good choice then I'll go to the cafeteria and get something more substantial other than Soup and salad. Thanks!

I have cream in my coffee. Not advising it but that's what I am doing.

Sandy's right. Soup and salads are slider foods with very little Protein to help you stay satisfied for a long time. Dense Proteins and dense veggies will help you stay satisfied till dinner where sliders will only make you want food again in 2 hours.
I usually have a Protein shake for lunch. Still kindof a slider food but the extra Protein stays with me. I might top it off with a hard boiled egg or slice of deli turkey. Then I have a 300-400 cal dinner with lots of dense protein like salmon, chicken or low fat hamburger.
During the fasting phase(usually 12-18 hrs), you should refrain from having any calorie containing foods. coffee with no sugar or cream is perfect and keeps your metabolism up. Just stay away from anything with calories.

I have a smothered burrito at Taco Bell with no rice and no tortilla. They look at me funny at first, but it's really good. I have even got my daughter eating it that way. Also, if I'm really desperate when I'm traveling (which is a lot) I can have a jr. whopper with one half of the bun. (I eat any small burger the same way) I will eat a hot dog with a half a bun. A salad from Costa Vida or Cafe Rio (don't think they have these chains nationwide, but is a mexican grill)

My nutritionist actually has Wendy's chili on her approved list for easing into the chunky food phase, so its not that bad!!
Some Panera bread Soups are also fairly low in caloires and fat. Their broccoli cheddar is actually pretty reasonable!

I had to do a lot of behavior modification as I was a real shoveler -- ate too much and too fast. So now I use a small utensil and I chew, chew, chew. I go slowly and can tell when my body is telling me that I need to go even slower or stop altogether. My goal is to be able to eat dense Protein -- like salmon, etc. and broccoli. I can tell if I'm too tight when I can't do that comfortably. Good luck to you! I did some practicing with putting down the utensil between bites and waiting a full minute to pick it back up again. That was so hard for me -- and of course that isn't what I do on a regular basis but it showed me what slow really means. Best wishes and congratulations on your excellent weight loss. I am very happy with my band and with the pounds off I will never see again but mostly I'm really happy with my new approach to life -- not being obsessed with food, really getting into exercise, etc. For me, that has made a tremendous difference. If any one had told me I'd be exercising like I am now I would have laughed in their face. But I just kept faking it 'til I made it -- and now I really do enjoy it. Incredible!

No food in particular makes me throw up. All foods will make me throw up if I don't eat small bites, eat very slowly and chew till the food is the consistency of cream type Soups.
tmf

Tuesday morning. Oh yeah, I'm hungry. ????

@@Bandista, always listen to your body. You're my inspiration. If 5:2 is triggering old thought processes then it's not the right method for you. But you know that already. ????
Today was Weird with a capital W. I was very stressed out during and after a phone call today and it was bizarre. The phone call used up my entire lunch hour so I couldn't eat my 500 calorie meal then. I had zero hunger either. Kinda spooky. I came home and at 5:30 heated up lean pot roast for dinner and a handful of raw green Beans to munch while it reheated. I only managed to eat 2/3 of the 4 oz of meat and got stuck. Ugh. My band was clearly too tight for the pot roast. I know it's a factor of having eaten nothing all day and the high stress level I had. Slimed, spit up, ugh. Not too much but still. Ironically I'm still not hungry. Last week on Monday night I was dreaming of Tuesday's food. Today nah.
I talked to people tonight to get some of the stress out of my system and I also drove my car with the radio blasting and rock music playing. That always helps.
At any rate, it is really clear to me that the tiny fill I got in September may not be super restrictive most days, but on stressful days or low food volume days it can be quite restrictive. I'm not going to get a fill in October. This may actually be my green zone.
I suppose I should sound happier about that. But realizing it by means of a stuck episode kinda dulls the thrill a bit. Lol.
I'm kind of hoping I wake up really hungry tomorrow. Did I say that?

I actually think it's good that you have come to this realisation. I mean you are listening to your body and doing what works for you.
However... The mental games can be torture and while physically you can tell what your body needs you sometimes do have to try and quite the clutter occurring upstairs... I don't mean to be forward or offensive in anyway, but considering a therapist might be an option?

This has been an interesting experiment for me. I have a history of being very restrictive and of course tried every version of every diet out there prior to WLS at which point I declared myself out of the diet game. What's worked well for me is to eat when I'm hungry and not eat when I'm not hungry. That's my one little "rule" for this banded life and actually it's much harder to do the former than the latter. Of course I'd always bounce back again -- Yo-Yo-Yo is my middle name. For these reasons, this 5:2 brought up a lot of old "diet" behavior for me. The old "better have it now" and "I'm going to reward myself" instincts came roaring back. It makes sense to me that I could not resist trying a new diet -- because that's what I always did. I think if I could have approached this as lifestyle rather than the D word then I could perhaps have skated through and gotten the metabolic benefits without screwing with my head. But there it is, we all have our own histories, head games, etc. So I ended up going back to my regularly scheduled programming. Eat when I'm hungry. That's important for me. I hesitated to report out because I want to encourage you all to go, go, go -- but we all know how different our bodies our. And the brains, geez. There's a committee in my head sometimes that I have to shut down. I could tell my the self-talk over the 5:2 prep and counting, etc. that it's just not the right thing for me right now.

umm metabolic circuit class on fast day.. not sure that was a good idea. i could pretty much chew my arm off .. but i'm going to wait until i get home before i eat the rest of my calories for the day.....

Alright ya'll... My life is uber stressful right now but I'm going to jump in and try this anyway. Maybe this will give me some much needed control in my life that I feel I'm lacking. I'm not in the green yet and have a fill on October.
I'm going to paraphrase what I've gotten from reading about the 5:2 Fast and you can correct me if this doesn't sound right. 5 days of 'normal' caloric intake/eating and 2 days of 500 calories or less. When fasting, try to stick with 18 hrs between meals. Most people do one meal a day on fast days generally at lunch or dinner. Sometimes, something small (a Protein shake) at lunch, then something larger in the evening.
Questions
1. I feel like I would need the most of the 500 calories on fast day for lunch, but I would also prefer to eat dinner with my husband at night. Should I suck it up and do a shake for lunch and the rest of my calories for dinner to keep some type of family normalcy? (Also note, I'm planning on talking my husband into doing this too so this might be a pointless question.)
2. I saw some arguments that intermittent fasting is more effective if done every other day instead of 5:2. Thoughts on this? I know it can really be whatever you want it to be, but I wanted to see if anyone had done it that way and found it easier or harder.
Anything else I should remember/know/keep in mind before I start doing this?
Also, I don't own a scale so I won't even know if this is working...yikes! I do have one a work though that I might be able to jump on.

Thanks tmf! I will try to watch these tonight when I get home.

Thanks tmf! I will try to watch these tonight when I get home.

Well it is day 4 since my episode and although I am able to keep liquids down that is all I can keep down. I have not even tried for purée or solids as I have to sip slowly for liquids to go down. My band is acting like it is completely full when in fact I know it's empty. I guess my stoma is swollen from the trauma that it went through. I will see my surgeon next week and hopefully get some alternatives.

I used to post regularly on LapBandTalk. I've been reading, but not posting here for a few weeks and feel ready now to dive back in with both feet.
Some Background...
My highest weight was 297. I was 265 or so at the time of my surgery (six years ago - or was it five?). I lost down to 180 and felt so good. So good.
Changes in my life started happening (mostly good things!) and I turned to my old best friend - food. I stopped paying attention to myself and what was going on with my body and I (of course) regained.
I made it up to 240 pounds, and then lost a bit. Gained a bit. Lost a bit. You know how it is.
Part of the issue was that I couldn't get a good fill. Too much out and I was hungry - too much in and I couldn't drink Water and had night coughs. Annnnd...my doctor had one of the strictest post-surgical (ongoing weight loss) diets I've seen - 600-800 calories per day. My conclusion was that the band was not working for me. I gave up. Plain and simple.
Digressing for a moment - I am darn lucky that the band was actually working and that I didn't regain every single pound I'd ever lost and then some. Darn lucky.
I moved across the country three years ago and haven't been seen by a weight loss surgery professional since then. I felt defeated in terms of the band and I was just plain tired of trying. Worn. Out.
Reality Set In...
I was bobbling around 230 pounds for months and realized that something needed to change. A friend of mine had sleeve surgery, so I started researching. Maybe the sleeve was the answer for me.
As part of my research, I stumbled upon drsimpson.net and devoured all of the information there very quickly. There are things on his site that made me say, "Yes! THAT!!! That's me!!!" Clear liquids for a week and I've been on full liquids for two weeks. I'm measuring everything. I'm walking again. And, surprise!, I'm losing weight. And (bigger surprise!) I'm not hungry.
So..why post now? A couple of reasons: 1) I need support and I know that I can ask for and receive it here, and 2) I want others to know that just because you've stopped following your plan and just because you've regained that doesn't mean you can't start over from where you are right now. You don't need to do what I did and start over - come up with a plan that you think will work for you and then follow that plan or have a new plan.
Oh, and thank you. There's so much good going on here.
xo

so even though i told my self i wasn't going to get on the scale until i'd had at least 4 fasting days. i couldn't resit i had my second yesterday.. don't think i managed to stay quite at 500 cals but didn't wander too far over. and with the metabolic circuit class i take wasn't really a prob.. anyho.. i was down 1.8 on the scale. OMG that's the biggest drop i've had in months usually it's a .3 a .5 but not anything over 1.. i'm so excited. got to behave this weekend and make it through my fast on monday here's to finally breaking that stall..

Good for you -- you're doing great! I fasted today until 5:30 or so then had a shake. Felt tight and probably shouldn't have pushed it. Was not really hungry either -- but figured I needed the Protein, etc. Always a mistake for me to think that way. Then I steamed up a bunch of asparagus and a little head of purple cauliflower (from my garden!). Pulling out my dieting expertise, but I'm not on a diet and I can't eat veggies like I used to -- nibbled those asparagus too fast and they are too fibrous. Volume probably too much. So then I decided to have one of my 100 calorie yogurts. Mistake. Big stuck episode and it had to come up. All that asparagus. Damn it all, not a raging success this first fast day but I've learned a few things. If I fast, I'm tighter. If I'm tight don't eat. If I'm not hungry don't push a shake. Oh, I was under some stress, too. Good stress, go figure, but my band seems to read stress as stress. In this case I was booking a little trip at Thanksgiving and getting concert tickets set up. Life is really good -- I'm doing things I didn't before. I'm really living. But all that anticipation and munching asparagus while making arrangements -- recipe for disaster for me. But I'm okay, no big deal. And I succeeded in terms of the daylong fast and under 500 for the evening.