HeatherO

Very beautifully stated. It surprised me as well, not to be hungry but to ache with hunger :0). I just think it goes to show we are on the right track.

What are you eating every day? How many calories, how much Protein, are you eating a lot of carbohydrates, are you taking a Vitamin supplement daily? I can tell you that what I am eating has a lot to do with my energy level. Diet may not be the full answer but it may possibly shed some light on the fatigue. A few small changes can sometimes increase energy and weight loss at the same time. Exercising an hour every day will definitely make a difference as well. It may seem counter-intuitive in that if you are tired, exercise shouldn't make you less tired . . . but it does indeed seem to work that way.

Speaking of insecurities in the bedroom (since this is the powder room and we can say what we want) . . . my DH says that since banding our "special time" is so much better than ever before. I was really embarrassed because I was always soooo self conscious and I thought it was a reference to being overweight. I had always assumed that even though he has always told me I am beautiful, how can he be satisfied with me when he has the body of an athlete and I . . . well, um, don't. He saw from my expression that I was embarrassed. He then went on to say that the reason it is infinitely better now has nothing to do with my size. He said that I was always hiding myself, covering as much as possible, lights out completely and had no confidence before . . . now I express myself. When he said this to me, it really made light bulbs go off for me. My weight was not the issue even though I thought it was everything, my feelings and insecurities about the weight weighed me down physically and emotionally more than I ever could have imagined. I guess I am still learning more every day through this journey . . . and I still have a ways to go :sad:

Having an agenda is a good start. Perhaps just making a list of topics you would like to cover and setting aside an amount of time to discuss. Topics could be eating habits, emotional eating, support systems, etc. An idea for the way to start the meeting is to go in a circle and have everyone introduce themselves and just talk a little bit about how they are doing, what is going on in their lives, etc. This could be a standard part of the agenda as a springboard into other topics/discussions. When there are only a few people to start, it can be really flexible and may not be much more than a structured chat. It is one of those things that grows and solidifies as it happens.

It is normal with certain foods. Just chew well, that is the most important thing. I would only worry if it is a really intense pain that happens all the time and you are still chewing well.

I can not believe it. I had soooo hoped that the Lapband might be the key to helping me find real success. I have met two of my biggest milestones to being "Normal" within a few weeks of each other. 1) I have lost more than 50% of my excess weight. :0) Even if I never lose another pound, I can't tell you how much better I look and feel now. 2) I have lost 50 pounds. It seems like such a big number to me. I am so happy to finally reached this milestone. It has been too many years since I have been at this weight. I have learned so much through these past 4 1/2 months. Lapband was not the magic bullet that I thought it would be . . . I have to work hard to lose. However, it has helped to slay the hunger demons (I am still working on the ones in my head :sad:). I could not have accomplished this much without having my tool and support of the forums. I feel like I am finally, truly on the right path. Thank you, thank you, thank you my faithful lapband. :frown:

I am happy everything went so well for you. I went abroad for my surgery and had a wonderful experience as well. By the way, hate to ask, but where is Bruno? :0) I am not sure I have heard of it before.

Sounds like you could really use another fill . . . unless you are indeed pregnant :0). If you are not pregnant, you should go in as soon as possible to get the next fill so you can get the most out of the period before your fills are no longer free. If you are pregnant, I have read a lot of the pregnancy threads and the band seems to help most of us bandsters keep from gaining huge amounts during the pregnancy. It also seems like people get right back on track with a fill post delivery. You may find that even if the timing was not what you may have wanted so soon after surgery, you may end up with a much better pregnancy than if you had not been banded. When you are at good restriction, the band doesn't allow you to just do your own thing and forget about the rest (unless you are eating slider foods). Good luck to you and please let us know how things are going.

I agree with everyone else, you probably need more Protein. Are you following your doctors recommendations for protein/calorie intake daily? My doctor said anything below 800 calories and 60 grams of protein is way too low after the initial liquid stage. I have now found that I need 1000-1200 calories a day to feel good and continue losing weight (I stopped losing at 800-1000 a day because my metabolism slowed, I also didn't feel that great). Now would be a great time to start really tracking your protein/caloric intake. fitday.com or the daily plate websites give you free tools to track your daily intake. Follow your doctors guidelines, but if they are not very specific, after a lot of reading it seems like most of us start off similarly with at least 800 calories or 60 grams of protein as the daily minimum.

Don't be too harsh on yourself and try not to feel too much guilt about what happened. I think almost all of us have had some sort of binge behavior at one time or another before we reached any real restriction after we were off liquids/mushies and onto regular food. This is a vulnerable time because we are still int he stage of relearning the behaviors that caused our weight issues in the first place. The most important thing is not that you had the binge, but how you choose to move forward from here. So it happened, you survived it . . . now its time to move on and get back on track. Someone suggested that you eat healthy foods instead of turning to Cookies, cake, candybars, etc. I agree 100% and have found this to be an effective tool for myself. How often do any of us struggling with weight control issues binge on carrots, celery, broccoli, etc??? Almost never because they are filling and healthy and you don't have the same blood sugar responses. I have found both pre and post banding that I have a carb addiction. If I eat something sweet, give me another half hour of so and I will have a HUGE craving to have something else sweet. Part of it is the blood sugar response. Now I choose not to eat these things and I don't allow my thoughts to dwell on them. Avoid highly processed carbs at all costs, especially those things laden with sugar and fat. These things slip right through the band even when you have good restriction. The band can not help you if you eat the wrong foods. If you really desire something sweet, have some fruit so that you can get some health benefits from it. Talk to your doctor about more aggressive fills as well. Perhaps you can shorten the time to the next fill. Most of us do not experience much restriction with the first fill. Last but not least, most of us here deal with some form of emotional eating and binge behavior that got us here in the first place. Read as much as you can about this behavior and ways that people have found to successfully combat it. A little information gathering, soul searching and behavior modification techniques can do wonders in finding ways to move away from self sabotaging eating behaviors.

I love raw veggies, they taste great and are so good for you. I was having a lot of problems at first as well. I can never just eat a handful of carrots alone but enjoy them very much with other things near. I learned that I can eat them if I eat them with something else. A little cottage cheese is healthy and goes a long way. I have just learned to incorporate them in a way that they have something a little softer near. I might alternate bites and everything goes down OK this way. Cucumbers with the skin peeled partially ( i usually peel stripes out of the skin) are wonderful and they go down really well. Tomatoes and green pepper work ok as well. Some fruits are also a problem with me. Sometimes I will eat apples with a little vanilla yogurt near and that works good even when apples alone don't always go down pleasantly.

Please post more often :0). It is wonderful to hear from you. I still battle emotional eating but it is definitely getting better as time goes on. I have started to learn to turn to other things, like exercise, to get me through. How long were you unfilled after the virus? Did you gain much?

I am not sure about a doctor near Waco, but I would begin looking online for bariatric surgeons in the area as a start. I saw that you have had a 75 pound loss so far which looks wonderful. Can you give us a little more information regarding the situation? Why doesn't your doctor want to remove the band? What kind of complications are you having? Does the doctor think your complications have been resolved or should not be too serious in the future?

I have heard of it happening before. If you continue to feel a complete lack of restriction, definitely give your doctor a call. You may be able to test your restriction by eating a very small amount of something that typically doesnt go down well for you, perhaps a little bread.

There are risks to eating too soon. Digesting foods causes movement in the stomach. Liquids require relatively no movement with solid Proteins requiring the most. The diet progression from liquids to solids is in place to allow your stomach to heal completely before there is too much movement. Not allowing your stomach to heal completely before testing it with solid foods can lead to slippage and possible band removal down the road. You may be fully capable of eating solid foods now in small amounts, but you may be risking the future health of your band. Most of us have eaten a little more than we should have during the early stages at least once. The most important thing is to get back on track. It was a special day yesterday and you were a little off plan, today is a brand new day to go back on plan and be successful. Don't forget, this is only a short period and you will be on to normal foods in no time. :0)

I don't think it is possible for you to run out of room for fillings. It is possible to fill the band until you are completely blocked and not even Water will get through. I don't think you have to worry about it. If you are hungry, why not just get another fill to make it easier on yourself and help the weight to come off a little faster or more steady? They always tell me the best gauge of whether you need another fill is that you are not losing 1-2 pounds per week and are getting physically hungry (not head hungry) between meals.

What a bummer. They should at least be able to schedule you a little earlier than the 30th considering they cancelled on you. Perhaps you can call them back and ask to be put on a cancellation/waiting list.

Every fill is this way for me. Even just drinking cold Water can cause series of small burps. It has caused me to learn how to burp very discreetly :0).

I don't know why, but if there is a chance that I feel like I might be starting down the pb path . . . sipping any water turns it into a definite. Water does not help me with this at all, it just doubles the intensity. Does drinking during a potential oncoming pb help or hurt most bandsters?

I got the headaches and withdrawal in the beginning as well. It only took a few days to make it through. 2nd & 3rd day were the worse and it rapidly improved thereafter. I think you may have gotten all of the pain of early withdrawal symptoms but did not get the benefit of moving past that stage by staying with it a little longer. Maybe you can ween yourself a little more gradually off carbs. Perhaps one week of post induction diet, then you go to induction and follow through from there on out.

I use a pressure cooker all the time for Soups. Just read the label carefully when you take it out of the box so that you know what to do with it and how to bleed out the pressure carefully. Wear gloves when you open it as well and make sure that you can see steam escaping from the appropriate spots as you are cooking. This is great for chicken, beef, lamb, etc. I also make my favorite Soup in it as well. It is a turkish recipe and is called mercimek corba or red lentil soup, but it is absolutely wonderful and my band loves it. Red Lentil Soup (Mercimek Corba) Take 1 cup of red lentils (I rinse them first), a tablespoon of butter, 1-2 cups of chicken broth, enough Water to bring total liquids up to 5 cups in total, 1 onion peeled (you dont even have to cut it), 1 small potato peeled (you don't have to cut that either). I then season it with salt, ground red pepper and a dash or two of cinnamon. All of this is thrown in the pressure cooker and the lid is placed appropriately. It is then put on medium high until the steam starts and I shift it to medium heat and cook for about 25 minutes. I let it cool for a little while, open it up and use a mixer to blend the onion and potato in with the soup (very easy because the pressure cooker cooks these so well it takes no effort to blend them). I finally serve the soup with a little freshly squeezed lemon on top. This is my all time favorite soup in the world, which is very healthy and has decent Protein.

I agree 100%. The good, effective stuff does usually end up at the gym. I had a good laugh the first time I ever saw a fit ball. I thought it was a joke . . . but I feeellll it when I am using it and it works great. Funny thing is, with all of the expensive equipment I have access to . . . I find good old fashion weights and exercise bands, not to mention using my own body weight to build strength, is a much better work out. I dont know why I ever thought I need a specific machine before when just getting down on the floor is such a great (and can be intense) workout.

I stay around 1000 on average with variability between 800 to 1200. When I am on the top or bottom of the range, weight loss slows to a crawl so I try to stick to 1000. I am working out like crazy and have been so for months now. I am really starting to notice a lot of toning and the scale definitely drops more when I am drinking a lot of Water and making exercise a daily part of my life. Exercising includes biking, going to the gym and doing step classes, weight training, or elliptical/treadmill work. I average 1 hour a day or so.

Congratulations Fanny! It is great to move through the various stages . . . there is always some new reward pending. I have just tiptoed in for the first time myself.

i would soak in a warm bath with my head and shoulders resting in the Water and my knees bent (but only deep enough so the water could not reach my incisions since it is not good to get them very wet). My husband would follow up with a little massage which really helped. My neck/shoulder pain lasted 5-6 weeks and was pretty intense. There were a couple of weeks where the bath/massage combo was a daily occurrence. It has since gone away leaving only an occasional twinge if I get overfull.