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To me it sounds as though your band is too tight. The band is not designed to work with liquids even if they are healthy like soup. Whilst you may think that is great now you could be setting yourself up for problems in the future.

Do not bake muffins when she comes home. My husband did a week or 2 after my surgery and I could have quite happily killed him.

Keep up eating well as it will make it easier after you have the band but do not let this delay deter you. You may or may not be able to lose the weight without the band but the problem as most of us know is keeping it off. I am sure that everything will be resolved soon and then you will be on the other side thinking wow have I really had my band that long already!

I suppose I should "introduce" myself! Banded June 2009. Lost 24kg (53lb) Current BMI +/- 21 Maintaing fairly easily. I am very lazy - I hate exercise. Slipping back into bad habits like eating chocolate and Cookies. I need to keep them out of the house as if they are not here I can't eat them, but this is difficult when my husband decides to bake at weekends. I also need to plan more especially if I am going shopping so that i can take something healthy with me instead of grabbing something at the food court. I have just read a really good book by Susie Burrell called "Losing the last 5kgs". Whilst I might not need to lose another 5kg the techniques and strategies that she mentions are very relevant although some need to be adapted for a bander. I don't think carrying a raw carrot with me to snack on would be a very good idea!

Thanks. A friend asked me the other day if my taste has changed as she was told by WW that after a while ( not sure how long) your tastes change and you no longer want the unhealthy foods. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP. My food of choice is still and always will be chocolate. Even if I didn't have it for 50 years I would still want it so I have no idea how long it is supposed to take for this taste change to happen. Think about it, if you had a choice between a lettuce leaf and a chocolate which would you choose?

I am sure that you have not done any damage but I am not sure that fried eggs are mushy. Mushy is stuff that is as the word says - mushy. Eggs can be hard to eat and frying them is not a good option. Apart from the unnecessary fat it also forms a skin that can be difficult to digest. You would be better off poaching your eggs and mashing them .

You won't feel full the way you did before band. Now if you eat too much you will feel discomfort in your chest. It sounds to me as though you are sabotaging your success by washing each bite down with Water. That is a big no no as it means that you will be able to eat more than you should. Make sure that you are taking small bites, chewing properly and waiting in between before you take the next bite. If you can eat solid foods this way you should be fine. If you can't then you may be a little too tight. As to the discomfort that is probably normal. Eating when you have restriction feels a lot different to preband. Whilst it shouldn't hurt it does feel a lot different but that is good as it should make you more aware of each bite.

I'd love to join you but I have to wait a while. See you on 2 June.

You say you do have restriction and you do eat less but it may not be about the quantity. It may be what you are eating that is stopping you from losing. Also even though you are eating less your less may still be more than is required for you to achieve weight loss. You need to look at all the parts of the equation to figure it out:- What you are eating, how much you are eating, how often you are eating, how much you are moving.

What do you mean by comfortably tight?

It sounds like you are already too tight. The soft mushy foods that you are eating won't fill you up, you will get hungry and you will put on weight. The band is designed to work most effectively when you eat solid protein, veg and healthy carbs. If you can't eat these you are too tight.

I have a similar situation. I was banded in June 2009. My last fill was in Aug 2011. I am not tight. I can eat practically anything. In fact at the moment I would love a topup as I am getting hungry way sooner than I should. Probably about a month before Christmas I started having issues with a sore throat and sometimes at night I woke up feeling like I couldn't swallow. Now my throat has always been my weak spot and i never considered that this could be reflux. However years ago 1 Dr said that maybe it was and he prescribed Nexium. I took them for a while but they didn't make any difference so i decided he was wrong and gave up. Not long after i got my band these symptoms returned. I spoke to the fill Dr and she said it was probably just a sore throat. It cleared up again but over the last few months seems to be becoming an issue. Since joining this site I am much more aware and now believe that my sore throat is possibly a result of reflux( the other possibility is post nasal drip but i don't really suffer with allergies). On a couple of occasions I have tasted the sour stuff in the back of my throat at night and or woken up coughing. I am back on Nexium but they don't seem to be making a huge difference. I saw my Dr in Jan hoping for a fill and telling him my fears about a slip. He does not think I have a slip because I do not have issues eating or drinking. He also told me that I would probably have other symptoms with a slip e.g left shoulder pain. He decided not to give me a fill and I am scheduled to see him in June although if it gets worse I will need to see him sooner and he will do xrays etc. I am trying to be more aware of what and when I eat. I do not eat citrus fruits, have onions and garlic but only in small quantities. I don't eat tomatoes very often but do eat tomato based sauces which I don't want to give up. We typically eat late as my husband only gets home at about 7pm. I am trying to eat earlier if possible but do not want to eat seperately from the rest of the family. I sometimes drink milk before bed but I am not sure if this helps or makes it worse. Friday was quite bad. We ate at about 6pm. I had salad and half a chicken sausage. I didn't feel stuck but got very uncomfortable afterwards. Not sure if it was the stalks on the spinach or the skin on the sausage. Went to bed at about 11.30 and had to get up again as i felt like I was choking. Hoping that was a one off and that I can sort this out by being more aware of what I am doing. The other weird thing is that my band does seem to have tightened up. I have never had a problem eating in the morning but atm my first cup of tea feels weird going down. I am having a shake for Breakfast instead of food which i hate as then I am hungry again 2 hours later. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything is Ok - for me and you.

I still don't see how an artificially manufactured protein powder could be considered a better choice than red meat!

Avo would be because of the fat. It is fine to eat so long as it is only a small portion and not the whole avo. I didn't eat a lot of fruit before being banded and eat even less now. I think it has something to do with the slippery texture, it makes it hard to chew and it is too easy to swallow a big bit. Melon and mango(which I love) definitelly slips past without being chewed. Kiwi fruits have all those pips in the centre which make me uncomfortable. Other stone fruits need to be peeled as there is nothing worse for me than having bits of skin stuck. These days if i do eat fruit it is usually tinned or cooked in some way. Strawberries lightly poached over greek yogurt are great. With veg I can eat most veg but being a Brit I prefer my veg soft! I cannot stand it when you go to a restaurant and they serve you green Beans and carrots which are still hard. Raw carrots are good though in salad or on sandwiches - the easiest way to eat them is to grate them or cut very thin pieces using a potato peeler.

You may still have food stuck and drinking etc may just be aggravating it. Try to relax, if you are tense it will be worse. Suck on crushed ice, it helps to reduce swelling and may make enough difference for the item to slip through if it is still there. Even if it isn't there you have obviously caused swelling which is painful and the ice will help to soothe that. For the record, onions have given me problems a number of times. they can be pretty tough and indigestible so you may want to be careful with them in the future. As to the heavy lifting I have no idea as it's not something I do.

In reply to your title - How long is a piece of string?

OK Jen, please tell us, if you are not going to eat animal Protein, fat or starches what are you going to eat? For the record animal protein is healthy and is one of the things most band Dr's advise you to eat first when you have a band. Fat is an essential part of a healthy diet and helps to control hunger. The important thing is to choose the right type of fat. Nuts, avo's ,fish etc all contain healthy fats. Foods with lots of fats added such as croissants or donuts are obviously not healthy. Starches are fine, they help to give bulk and are still the bodies best source of energy. Again you should choose wholemeal, grainy starches over white extremely processed ones. I assume that you do not have your band yet. You may find that once you do your opinion on what is/isn't healthy may change. A good example is that a diet preband would probably contain a nice grilled chicken breast with lots of salad. After you are banded you will probably find either a) you cannot eat the chicken breast because it is too dry or you can eat a small amount but it makes you too uncomfortable or c) find that it gets stuck. You will probably go for option d) still eat chicken but choose thigh over breast and instead of grilling it you may cook it in the crock pot and serve it moist with some kind of sauce. If I am wrong and you are banded already then please share some of your favourite meals with us. The title of the thread was Can You Tell Me Your Favorite Meals!!! not What are the healthiest foods to eat that I should be eating once I have a band.

I would say that yes it is because of dehydration. Alcohol dehydrates and dehydration makes a band tighter.

I met a guy yesterday that was probably in his early 50s. He was telling me how he had about 3/4 of his stomach removed when he was in his teens due to ulcers and other problems. So in effect what he had is very similar to having a sleeve. Whilst this guy was by no means obese he looked like your average guy of around that age. Overweight with what looked like a beer belly. So this tells me that even with drastic reduction of stomach size unless you continue to aim to keep your weight under control it won't happen. That it is still easy to gain weight. He also mentioned that he has a lot of problems with excess acid. Something that I believe is a common problem with surgeries that reduce the size of the stomach.

I take pills with no problem. I just make sure to have a swallow or 2 of liquid first then drink the pill with more liquid. Capsules are easier than pills but even the pills go down fine for me.

I have flown a number of times - long haul flights and have never had a problem. What I was told by my Dr was that an unfilled band can cause problems in the air as the air in it can expand but that if it has saline in the saline does not expand. Obviously you want to be careful what you eat while you are flying as it would be the worst place in the world to be stuck and sliming.If you are concerned order a special soft meal or Soup before you fly.And if the worst comes to the worst and your band does feel tighter in the air then as soon as you land it should go back to normal. If you do get an unfill make sure it is because you really are too tight and not just because you want to eat more on holiday. As the others have said , if you do that then you are getting into really dangerous territory.

Well done.

They sound yummy. What is EVOO ????

LB4ME I think he might be! Toddy I don't think he is deliberately trying to sabotage me as he prefers me slim, I just don't think he thinks sometimes. I also think that he forgets that weight is a constant battle - he probably thinks that now I am at goal that I can eat what I want and not regain. If only that were true.

I am beginning to wonder if my husband has been replaced by an alien. He certainly doesn't seem to have paid much attention to what I can/can't eat . Now if i was new to this then it wouldn't be a problem but I have been banded 3 years in June. So let me explain. I worked today, hubby didn't. Generally when this happens he will cook dinner.I got home from work at about 5pm and he was cooking chocolate chip muffins. Not a major problem except that lately is seems that every chance he has he cooks some kind of cake or dessert. He obviously knows that I have a weight issue but lately my daughter has been struggling too. I saw that he had a jar of some kind of sauce out so asked what he was cooking. He said chicken curry. Now that sounds great - a nice curry with lots of sauce, made from nice moist thighs and with a little bit of rice = no problem. I did mention that I didn't want to eat late tonight. I was struggling with reflux last night which could have been from eating too late. He said not a problem, it wouldn't take long. So did he start cooking it? No, he then proceeded to bake 2 zucchini cakes.I understand why - we have stacks in the garden and it is 1 way of using them up. But 2 cakes on top of the huge batch of muffins????? I have no idea what time he eventually decided to start cooking dinner but at about 7.15 he comes to me and says he has a problem, the rice isn't cooking. Turns out he had put the rice in with the chicken and put the casserole in the oven. (Some type of chicken Biryani). Now generally that is a dish that takes a long time to cook and can be quite dry plus of course the proportion of rice is really high. At about 7.45 I gave up waiting and decided to eat some frozen veggie cannelloni . Not very exciting but quick and easy to eat. Hubby then apologised about the food being late and told me what he was cooking. I told him well it wasn't a problem as it was unlikely I would have been able to eat it anyway - too much rice.He then mentioned that he had used chicken breast which he knows I don't buy or eat because they are too dry. When I said that he knows I don't eat that he said yes he knows but he forgot! I know men can be a bit dim sometimes(sorry guys) but really this takes the cake. I know I should appreciate the fact that he cooked but to make a meal that was so obviously something I would struggle with and to have it ready so late(they ate at about 8.30) when I had said I wanted to eat early is so annoying. MEN. Who needs them!!!!!