hopeendures

Only certain things that I cannot manage come back. Like chicken...apparently no matter how it's cooked. Oddly enough, I ate a 3 oz ground beef patty, and it was fine, but even still I didn't feel full...just felt it building up in my esophagus, and knew it was time to stop. When I talked to the doctor about the food that won't stay, or go down, he said, "You are on a journey of trial and error...you will get to know what you can and cannot eat." I have been around a few other bandsters, and they seem to be able to eat almost anything, just much smaller portions. I am willing to give up almost anything to not be "fatty fatty 2x4, can't fit through the kitchen door" .....but only if I have to.

This is a great question, and one I was actually going to ask too. I never feel that nice filled up satisfied feeling. I have not had a fill yet, but I have restriction. The doctor told me that he used the smallest lap band available, (because I am a small person, a phrase that still makes me smile.), and he said I would have restriction before my first fill. So, I am 4 weeks out, and monitoring my calories, Protein, potassium, and everything because most days, it's a major chore to get in a minimum 800 calories. I fix myself 2 oz of potato, and 2 oz of tuna, and eat half of it, and feel like I can't swallow another bite. Not because I feel full, or even satisfied, but because it seems there is no more room, and it's building up in my esophagus. Additionally, even though my doc gave me the go ahead to start introducing regular food a couple days ago, I haven't found much I can eat. chicken, Pasta, tuna steak, scrambled eggs....all a no go. Love the weight loss, and it's worth it to cope with this, but I would like to be able to lead a somewhat normal life. As it is, I absolutely will not eat in a restaurant. Most things end up being regurgitated because they will not enter the stomach, and it feels like I have swallowed a whole cow. (and yes, I chew thoroughly, take small bites, wait in between...etc)

Congrats on surviving the liquid phase. Mushies start seeming exciting after that, don't they? here's stuff I've eaten on the mushy plan: Week 1: baked potato w/cheese broccoli soup for moistener. (yummy, but less fat than butter and sour cream) Soups, the best of which was mushroom beef. Gerber babyfood. (vegetable beef, heated and with a little salt and pepper) better than it sounds. and fried eggs. (scrambled got stuck...but some people do that without trouble) Week 2: Grilled Tuna Fried potatoes Stew green beans Peas cauliflower Good luck!!!

I posted this in another thread, but I'll put it here since it seems to fit. My band makes me feel like a woodcutter who has just gotten his first powersaw. The powersaw will not cut the wood by itself, but it does make the woodcutter's job a lot easier! Nice ticker btw! LOL

Wow.... It has never occurred to me, but that would awesome! I mean...really...I wonder if there will come a time when training is available for that. My mother gave her own insulin shots for a decade. You might check with naturopaths in your new area. Mine is trained to do fills, and does so for only $150 each.

Hey karry You and I were banded the same day! Great job! You are doing so well!

Hi Penny, There are two things that really helped me get through this time that you are in. First of all, thedailyplate.com It calculates how many calories you should be consuming, based on information you provide, and then tracks your calories for you, as well as your nutrients. Very helpful, and fun to use. Secondly, I engage in a lot of mind games, and imagry. For instance, when I felt hungry, I would imagine that every second I was feeling hunger pains, it was because my body was snacking on my big butt! Or taking a slab of back fat and throwing it in the furnace to burn for fuel. I am sure it sounds ridiculous, but it helped. I am just in the middle of my fourth week, and I don't think I've been hungry more than once or twice in the last two weeks, so....it does get better!!! Granted the first time I ate something semi solid, (eggs) and they got stuck, I realized eating isn't as much fun as it used to be. Which is a good thing. Heck, it's a great thing! Afterall, if it weren't so much fun, I wouldn't have ended up here in the first place!!! One thing that really helped me, (and I've mentioned it before) was HMR chicken soup. It's a meal replacement, and I add a packet of liptons cup of soup, and it's delicious, and a nice change from the huge array of sweet foods that seem to dominate the liquid and soft diet phase. Sometimes, I need something salty. You can order it online at Diet, Weight-Loss and Weight-Management Leader - HMR Official Site As for will power, I don't know about you, but for me, I need "won't" power more! lol Good Luck!!!

Hi Penny, The decision you made is a good one. You are only 7 days out....and yeah, the first six weeks will be tough. But you are just going through the necessary process, which isn't very satisfying. I wasn't really all that clear that there would be no fill for six weeks. I didn't understand that the first step is getting the surgery. Then you wait and heal for a few weeks before it really starts to do it's job. But...I know so many people who have always been fat, and who aren't anymore. Years of dieting success followed closely by diet failure suddenly all washed away. It's fabulous, and every single one of them has said the same thing. Once you are thin, you look back at that tiny six week period, and it seems like NO BIG DEAL compared to what you gained from it. Hold on....Bandster hell won't last forever. And all of us here at lapbandtalk have been through it too, and we understand the frustration, and the "want it NOW" feeling. We got your back....come on and vent, and rant, and even cry if need be. But know deep down that this is going to be great once you get past this part!

Today I managed to eat a 3 oz Tuna steak, bbq'd....and 2 oz of fried potatoes. I had to stop in the middle, and take an hour long break, but went back and finished it after that. No pb'ing, and no sliming. And OH MAN! Talk about delicious! :cool2:

It's officially been three weeks since banding. I have had no fills yet. I have felt some restriction, as it's the smallest band they make that I have inside me. Fine. I've been eating mushies, and had no problem. Yesterday I had scrambled eggs, with half a slice of cheese. Yumm! Today, I tried to eat the same thing, and two bites in, it absolutely stopped, and I ended up sliming for about half an hour. Later, hours later, I tried some cheese ravioli. Again, two bites in, (and being very very very careful about chewing thoroughly, and waiting a while between bites.) it all stopped again. And again, more sliming...(in fact I took a break in the middle of typing this to go do that some more). Today, it seems, all I can tolerate is liquid. Any idea why that would be the case? :confused2:

It's the same for me. My mother spent the last five years of her life on dialysis. It was miserable, and all preventable if she had been able to have controlled her diet and weight when she was my age. I started ten years ago. Lost 160 lbs. Then kept it off for five years. But the last three years has seen over 100 of it creep back on. With the lapband, I feel like a woodcutter who has just discovered the powersaw. It won't cut the wood by itself, but it will make the woodcutters job so much easier!

If you have never had the HMR chicken Soup, it's a great change up from the Protein shakes. It's a Meal Replacement. You may have to buy it online. Just google HMR Diet. As for the weight ticker, just go to tickerfactory.com and create a ticker. Then copy and paste the code into your signature on your lapbandtalk profile. Every time you post it will appear automatically! And every time your weight changes, you just click on the ticker from any of your posts, and it takes to a page to change your info! Ta DA!

yep....that was my experience too. IV for 24 hours, with pain meds, and doctors checking in, and nurses. Loved it. Recommend it to all.

My advice is to relax. You can't undo what you have already done, and freaking out about it will just make you more likely to slip up again. It sounds like you don't have any restriction, which is normal, and it's unlikely that you have caused any damage to the band, although I wouldn't push my luck! Do your best to monitor your food intake. Use thedailyplate.com and journal everything. But most importantly, be kind to yourself. You won't help yourself succeed with negative self talk. You're doing fine, just leave the mistakes behind, and do your best.

Price. I paid for everything myself. Going to Mexico costs me $8K, (Including airfare for 2, and all expenses). If you have checked it out, you know it's a tad higher here. And honestly, the care was amazing. Given the choice of that hospital over the one in my hometown, I would go there if everything else was equal.

What a blessing it has been to read all of this thread. I have been through all of that...everything. And it's wonderful to have a place where we can talk about those heartrending things, and be accepted, and truly understood! No one who has not been down this road comprehends the grief stricken state of it's travelers. Thanks for the support, and the sharing. You are wonderful valuable people just as you are right now!

Reading here, I can't believe the things people are eating on a full liquid diet. If cottage cheese, and yogurt is liquid, what is mushy? And what is solid? I mean, it's all mushy after you chew it for a while... I Lost 22 lbs during the liquid phase of my recovery. I did get awfully sick of Meal Replacement shakes, but at only 120 calories for 20% of your entire day's nutritional needs, they are hard to beat. I monitored my intake of every nutrient during this time, and made sure it fit into an 800 calorie day, and that nothing risked stretching my pouch, and straining healing stitches. I avoided cream soups, and high calorie drinks. (both usually have not only a lot of calories, but a lot of sodium) This is such a short part of the process. It was really important to me to start losing weight right away. I didn't care to wait until my first fill. So I figured I could manage to control my intake for a few weeks while I wait, and get the process started. But I have talked to a lot of bandsters who didn't lose weight at all during the first six weeks. It's a long journey....not a huge difference whether you start now or start in 6 week. It will work.

I woke up hungry, and my stomach growled, and demanded food. Two weeks on the liquid diet, hungry quite often. But there is something you should know about hunger pains. On average, they come only once an hour, maybe twice at most, and last only about 10 minutes. If you know that, and you set your mind on the fact that you can endure this for 10 minutes....it's easier.

I just want to say thanks for this thread. Not because I have experienced the same thing, but because I haven't seen it discussed, and sexuality certainly changes with massive weightloss. Thanks too for the laughs on the swallowing question. It's something I have actually considered, but the question, and the answers were put out there with such good humor....LOL I love you guys!

Oh my goodness! The horse thing! How humiliating! I just have to say, that I have ridden since early childhood, and I continued riding, even when I weighed 300#, though I know I couldn't have done it if I had ever stopped. It was humiliating though to not be able to get on a horse without a stump, or something to climb up on. And on those few occasions when someone caught me in photograph, (and I had the misfortune of seeing it), it was devastating. Almost enough to make me never go in public again, let alone, get on a horse! Congratulations on making this change!

I, too, went to Mexico. Monterrey, with Dr. De La Garza. The experience was wonderful, and hassle free. I haven't had a fill yet either, but do have some restriction. Tonight I ate some lasagna, the closest thing to solid food I have had so far. It all was going fine. Slow, but fine, until I took one bite too many. It wasn't horrible, but I definitely knew I was done after just 3/4's a serving. It's moments like that when I know this will work. In the past, I wouldn't have finished that serving, and then snacked on the rest until it was gone. Tonight, I have had NOOOO urge to snack on the remaining lasagna. Since surgery I have kept my caloric intake at 800 a day, closely monitoring my Protein, and everything. I'm feeling great, and looking forward to continuing to learn how to use this new powerful tool I've been given!

I practiced lap band eating for several months before I actually got mine. Not the amounts, but the actual act of eating. This was a decision I made after watching the pain one of my banded friends went through when she forgot to eat slowly enough. I consciously thought about how completely chewed my food was...and resisted swallowing and gulping it down before it was thoroughly mushified. Sounds simple, but when you try it, it's surprising how difficult it is. I paid attention to the rate at which I shoveled it in. It never dawned on me before, but I have always been scooping up the next bite before the last one is swallowed....like it's some kind of emergency to make sure my mouth never is empty. So I worked on setting the fork down, and do my mastication thing, and then waiting at least 20 seconds AFTER it was swallowed before moving on. Again, it sounds simple, but it took a lot of practice to adjust that one little habit. If I could offer advice to a future band-it, I would say practice learning how to eat. It might save you some painful slimy bouts later! If you forget while you are practicing, there aren't any consequences....there will be later! Any other advice for pre-op people from Bandsters out there?

You are a beautiful woman! I know you don't feel it, and kudos for making positive choices to start the process of fixing what you don't like. But please do yourself a favor, and starting telling yourself positive things every day now. And I know exactly what you mean about the shame you feel when you look at that picture. I have been there. Check out my pics on my profile! You look positively svelt next to me!