2muchfun

I'm getting banded on 2/25. Very excited for this journey! Good luck to you as you start yours!

I remember when this site was lapbandtalk! I was a lurker/occasional poster back then. I had a different screen name. I was agonizing over the decision to get a lap band, then my GP talked me out of it so I just left and pushed it out of my mind. Annoyed that I followed her bad advice but at least I got it done and am well on my way to permanent weight loss.
I am so sorry your husband isn't supportive. I hope you find peace, whether through working on fixing things with him or just leaving for a fresh start.

9 days to go!

Well this site used to be vertical sleeve talk in an alternate reality.
The mixing everything together has advantages - I've gotten to know some great new people - but is much hardee to navigate.
Glad you are back and sorry to hear about your marriage problems. I recognize the hypocrisy but I will say it anyway,I hope you find it within you to try counseling or some way of saving things. It saddens me that my long term relationship didn't survive this either. In my case, it was dead way before I lost weight, but I had attributed the lack of affection, intimacy, communication or any meaningful time together to my obesity. It grossed me out, so I genuinely thought it did him too. Well, I got slim, much better looking and it didn't change and I just couldn't take it anymore. We are better friends than life partners but even years later it saddens me that it wasn't salvageable and I always hope for better for others.

Hey butterfly40 - Personally I add protein to nearly everything and i try to think of things that will "stick to my ribs" in a manner of speaking.
Seems like quick easy foods would be best for a teacher - I think you sound like you'd do well with some tuna or egg salad with crunchy celery or onion in it with maybe a couple saltines or cucumber slices? Make some sugar free pudding & add your favorite Protein powder to it then add a tablespoon of healthy granola on top if you want/need the crunch factor or crumble up a piece of a crunchy Protein Bar? I've also made batches of crustless quiche in a mini muffin pan. They travel well are pretty tasty at room temp and you can put anything in them. I start with 5 eggs and a little cheese then clean out my veggie drawer. Makes 24 little mini quiche.
If you care to share likes/dislikes then I'd be happy to make other suggestions or send over recipes

OK, confession time. When I first came to Lapbandtalk I saw some of your posts and I admit, I checked out your gallery. I remember thinking, "she's a hottie"!! Hope you stay. Don't recall you ever getting rude with anyone. Do recall you making some comments about your hubbie being less than supportive in the last couple of years.
I agree, I don't like this site as much as the old site. And there are so few banders posting these days. We need you, and many new banders still need to see you because you're an inspiration of what we can all be.
Sorry about your hubbie.
tmf

This is an anonymous forum. No one knows you or what your depth of knowledge is of nutrition and understanding how to work with your tool?
My advice is to try to eat all foods but don't bite the hands of the people who only want to help you with their personal experience. Accept some advice and ignore the others.

Yes!! I just had my first fill today and I asked the Dr about the excessive burping and also pressure in my chest. He said it was from drinking carbonated drinks or swallowing too much food to fast.

I'm sorry about your marriage. I'm going through divorce myself. It's hard as hell and I need this place. Welcome back.

Where to start..... the beginning i guess...
So it was the summer of 2009 and i stumbled upon this site... but back then it was Lapbandtalk.... but not only LB people came here... People looking for answers, support, comfort, a place that they could feel connected if you will with people like them selves. I meet some of the nicest, amazing encouraging people here. Some of which i am still in touch with via Phone, FB, chat... Some i have even had the pleasure of meeting in person and have life long friendships with. Some i have never met in person, but feel like i've know them my whole life. Kindred spirits if you may. But, Alex saw the need to have one site that everyone could come to no matter what WLS journey you were on. Some loved it.... Others, well not so much and left, never to be heard from again. I, myself left for a while. But felt a need to reconnect and get some encouragement to get back on the wagon as you would say.... I had let my success make me complacent.... and in turn i gained back 20lbs. This time i recognized what was happening before i let it get the best of me... and got the best of it. So now im back at the 140is range and happy happy happy.
As a lot of you know, my journey has not been the "ideal" one. No, i didn't have problems with my band (one 1cc unfill in over 6 years) whoop whoop... My problems came from some place worst... much worst.... In the form of the person that should have been my rock, my back bone, my at-a-boy giver... the person that should have been there encouraging me and praising me to keep striving to do and be better. Instead, i got you will never succeed at this, why do you need surgery, can't you do it the "natural" way.... Then you're too thin, you look sickly, your face is sunk in.... LB is just a hobby... you have a surgical body.... but the best one.... Your losing weight was the worst thing that ever happen to us..... And yes im talking about my Husband... The person i have spent a quarter century of my life with. the person that i once thought i would grown old with... The person i thought would be the one to say...Wow, you look nice, pretty, sexy... Now we are room mates in the same home if you will... two people that see each other everyday... but never really SEE each other. And yes im just a guilty. When i started this i had a few friends ask.... Do you have a strong marriage? I thought what a strange question... Of course i did... or so i thought. So i find myself at a cross-road if you may between staying in a marriage of convince where there is no romance, no intimacy, no connection. OR.... taking the leap and getting out and jumping into a world i no longer know.... Another world were there are no guarantees that i will be happy. What if i end up alone? (no i will never be a divorced cat lady)... What if i can't make it on my own? I never really had too. I mean, i got married the first time at 16, divorced at 18 and remarried at 23...... What if ... What if... good Lord the What ifs..... Anyway, in my journey of self discovery, I have made incredible successes as far as weightloss, feeling and looking better than I have in year.... But, i have made some terrible mistakes, trusted people i thought were my friends... Seeked out approval from people i should not have and in ways i should not have. But, i made my bed so to speak...
So in my haste of anger, disappointment, and a lot of hurt... My first instinct was to leave this place, leave the place that lead me on a few paths.... One of great success and the other great self disappointment. So i deleted... deleted... deleted... i thought that's it... Im not going back. but then i realized... it's not this site.... It was me. I made those choices.. No one did that but me.... I have a lot of self reflection still to do.... I hope one day to have an Epiphany if you may and wake the hell up and Piss or get off the pot..... It's just so damn hard to pull that trigger, cuz once the bullet leave the chamber, something or someone will be damaged and life will never be the same.
So, thanks to all my friends that have supported me through the years and i know will continue to support me. And to those i have offended and hurt along the way... I ask for your forgiveness. I am but mere mortal.... I know that in the years i have given lots of good advice, some say even great advice... I have been open and as honest as i can... some took me and my advice as negative... but in the years i have gotten way more thank yous... the F yous... So i consider that pretty good coming from a southern fowled mouth, shoot from the hip, tell it like it is girl.... So for this, I will stay and bug the hell out of all of you.... lol...... its not that you all didn't mean the world to me, but I deleted all my friends in my haste... and if you still want to come along to see where this journey leads... friend me again...
Thanks for everything...... Chris AKA BayouGirl....

This is all stuff I'm eating on my blended but it might give you some ideas:
Try some low fat cottage cheese (you can mix in a little sweet chilli sauce or some chopped cherry tomatoes), blend some meat (chicken or turkey or even white fish) with gravy and put it in your mash (potato, sweet potato or vegetables), order some special high Protein puddings or milkshakes (I got some vanilla puddings from protein.com and they were amazing - I think 15g of Protein and around 100kcal), have scrambled eggs (a lot of protein in eggs, just crack two of 'em with seasoning in a pan), smooth porridge, low fat custard or rice pudding, low fat Greek yogurt, fromage frais, or tuna fish in low cal Tomato sauce!
Hope some of these help - if grits is high in carbs it probably doesn't help you much. Not that I've ever had it before!! And make sure you use very low fat cheese or milk and don't add butter to things! ????????????

I don't have a lapband, so please take this with a grain of salt, but you seem to be eating an awful lot of carbs, even if you are putting cheese on them.
Have you talked to your NUT?

If this is all about convincing your spouse you're ready for a fill, you're going to have to change your current eating habits so you get stuck less often.
Even those of us who do eat slow, chew a lot and take small bites have an occasional stuck episode. It's just a part of being banded. I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule but if you want his support, give him a reason to support your decision? Eat like a Bandster.

I don't have a problem with snacking, or eating in general.
I have developed a new lifestyle, where I am not on any particular diet.
Difference now than before surgery, is that where I could not stop eating in excess, I now eat very little over a 24 hr. period.
so when I do eat, I try to choose the healthiest choices I can make.
That includes Snacks out of the vending machine. There is usually something I can eat..if not, then I move on.

I have a lot of photos of myself from days long past.

Photos of myself at an extremely unhealthy weight.

Photos of myself at a time that I was eating as a way of dealing with my emotions.
​




These pictures represent a time in my life where I was constantly sad, constantly depressed. They represent a time when I felt completely unworthy. They are pictures of a woman who put on a fake smile to hide all the pain inside.
They capture a woman who felt like she was drowning in the co-morbid conditions that the disease of obesity had brought her too.
I was full-blown diabetic, I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, severe edema and severe depression. There were days that I was simply non-functional.
I knew that my weight was causing these medical issues and truthfully, I didn’t care. I had given up on life, love and the pursuit of happiness. I very consciously made the decision to not care about what my lifestyle behavior choices were doing to my health and to my body.
I had a lot of days that I really wished I wasn’t even there. I was very aware that I was digging a grave with a fork and a spoon. In fact, if I am being completely honest, that was very much my intention.
These photos portray a woman who truthfully didn’t love herself. A woman who didn’t believe that she was worthy of being loved.
They portray a woman who was still very much caught in the survivor mentality of life. A woman who had grown up a survivor of physical, sexual and verbal abuse. A woman who was psychologically using her weight as a way to build walls and keep people out.
Sometimes I post photos of my transformation, a before-and-after photo of myself and I look at it and I think “Oh my god, who is that girl?” or “I don’t recognize that woman anymore.”
Almost instantly someone will see my photo and tell me that I was just as beautiful then as I am now or that I have always been the same person.
I very rarely respond to these comments because I really don’t know how to explain. Really, that’s your interpretation, not mine. I don’t need you to qualify my beauty and I don’t need you to diminish the celebration of my transformation.
Let me pause here and clarify something – if you have ever been one of those people who came on to my post and made a comment like this, I am not spanking you. I realize that you’re trying to be a positive voice in a negative world. I realized that you are trying to be supportive and kind and I appreciate that. I try to do the same and there are far too many people out there that are willing to tear each other down rather than to build each other up.
What I am trying to do is maybe get you to see the situation through a different perspective. I’m trying bring light to the fact that sometimes what we think is positive and supportive, if contrary to how someone feels about themselves, really isn’t.




Sometimes I think we are so busy trying to make sure that those that are dealing with obesity do not feel shamed or stigmatized that we forget that obesity is a very complex disease and that it can be caused by many different things.
If I was a recovering drug addict and I posted a before and after photo of myself with a tourniquet around my arm and a needle in my vein would you tell me that I was just as beautiful then as I am now?
I am one of the first people to stand up against weight bias, weight stigma and weight discrimination. Nobody should ever have to experience those things and I spend a lot of my free time trying to help educate and raise awareness to fight these societal intolerances.
I am also the first person to stand up and say that obesity is not healthy. Obesity isn’t a pretty disease. It is as unkind and ugly as any other deadly disease. Just like you can’t look at a photo of someone and decide that the reason they struggle with their weight is because they make poor lifestyle choices and over consume food; you also can’t look at a photo and assume that it’s not.




As a recovering food addict, someone who used food to feed my feelings and someone who was purposely and systematically killing herself with food, when I look at a photo of myself and say “I don’t recognize that girl anymore.” — I don’t need someone to tell me that they do.
I’d much rather see my transformation acknowledged in a way that doesn’t focus on looks but rather on the accomplishment. “Way to go! What an amazing transformation.” “That’s awesome, congratulations on your health accomplishments!” “What a great job. Look how far you have come.” There are a ton of ways we can acknowledge before and after transformations without using beauty as our quantifier.
As someone who has very openly discussed body images issues after weight loss, I can honestly tell you that when someone tells me I am just as beautiful then as I am now I have to remind myself that they are talking about on the inside. Because just a couple of years ago a comment like that would have me standing in front of my mirror wondering what I needed to “fix” about my body to make it noticeably different.
When I look at those before photos and all they represent, I don’t think I was beautiful then. I think I was suffering. I think I was in a very dark place and I think my obesity was a very physical symptom of that ugliness. I’m relieved everyday that I was able to bounce back from it.
I look back at those photos and I am thankful that I have managed to find a way to maintain my recovery from obesity and food addictions in a world that is food-centric. I look back at those photos and I am grateful that I wasn’t successful at trying to end my life via obesity.
Some people look at those photos and think that I hated myself because I suffered from obesity. The truth is I suffered from obesity because I hated myself. The moment I learned to start loving myself and finding myself worthy, I started making healthier lifestyle decisions.




I am not the same person in those photos. Not on the outside. Not on the inside. I have successfully navigated a lifestyle transformation. If I was the girl you see in my before pictures, you likely wouldn’t have the pleasure of knowing me today, my friends would have been shopping for a casket by now.

Well idk my first grand baby was born at 1:15 am today.

There's a support group headed by one of the members here. Her name is gowalking . I think she went to the same surgeon's office as you did? Anyway, this is a 100 lbs+ group and you're close enough? Visit it here http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/349818-banders-7/ . gowalking heads up a support group I believe in your neck of the wood/skyscrapers? Give it a look?
tmf

Why not start the process again? There's also a group of folks who had 100+ lbs to lose called banded #7. Look it up in the forums area?

I tend to log everything I eat in myfitnesspal.com. It fills the details in for me. It also adds all the nutrition and calories for me so I can't mess up the math.
Otherwise, read your nutrition labels. For the cornbread it should be on the box. I assume one piece of cornbread is one serving. I just find it easier and more convenient to let an app/computer program do the figuring for me.
Does that help?
pam

I will try that route but everyone in my family is worried, and I just cannot eat.

Fills usually are at the option of every doctor and no two doctors are alike. I'd say most docs start fills around the 4-6 week mark. Most docs fill 1-2 CCs the first time. Then, it's incremental after that. But, you should ask your own surgeon what his/her protocol is for fills. I've read of some odd protocols on this forum.
There are basically two sizes of bands. 10 and 14 CC bands. Some people never need a fill and feel satisfied with less food by just have an unfilled band around their stomach. Others go all the way to 14 CCs but that is rare. The green zone is the time you get that one fill that gives you satiety with less food and keeps you satisfied for up to 4 hours.
Here's a series of videos from a famous bariatric doctor from Australia. Your doctor may have different views and protocols than this doctor but O'Brien covers most all questions you might have? Obey your own doctor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa3Lwt6ElIs&list=UL Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4jYJipQ7vc part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbdhf44ZweI&feature=relmfu Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF3TCKUn3YI Part 4

Fills usually are at the option of every doctor and no two doctors are alike. I'd say most docs start fills around the 4-6 week mark. Most docs fill 1-2 CCs the first time. Then, it's incremental after that. But, you should ask your own surgeon what his/her protocol is for fills. I've read of some odd protocols on this forum.
There are basically two sizes of bands. 10 and 14 CC bands. Some people never need a fill and feel satisfied with less food by just have an unfilled band around their stomach. Others go all the way to 14 CCs but that is rare. The green zone is the time you get that one fill that gives you satiety with less food and keeps you satisfied for up to 4 hours.
Here's a series of videos from a famous bariatric doctor from Australia. Your doctor may have different views and protocols than this doctor but O'Brien covers most all questions you might have? Obey your own doctor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa3Lwt6ElIs&list=UL Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4jYJipQ7vc part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbdhf44ZweI&feature=relmfu Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF3TCKUn3YI Part 4

Thank you so much @@2muchfun

A month ago I got food poisoning. OMG it was horrendous. I couldn't eat anything for days. My surgeon said that your stomach swells so your band gets really tight. He suggested shakes and Soup for a few days and if not better in 2 days go back and have some Fluid out. After 3 days I was back to normal. Make sure you keep your fluids up.

Thanks thats how I was thinking. Appreciate the feed back.