xavier

I was worried too, thats just normal! Now I think why didnt I do this sooner! I am not a good dieter, rule-follower or exerciser but the weight has slowly fallen off. I still go out to dinner a lot and I take food home and eat it for days! A restaurant sized meal is 4 to 6 times what I can eat!My husband says I am a cheap date. I did get a wrinkly weird lower gut but it looks great in clothes and I greatly prefer it to the big gut that was bursting a size 16...My size 8 jeans are getting loose and this has actually been easy once the restriction was nice and snug like I needed! Hang in there!

The preop diet just plain sucks! I have failed dieting obviously or why would I need a band...AND I am hoping to retrain myself out of the stupidity of diets but this is what the doc wants...it was no fun and I was headachey and starving but after that , never again. Hang in there and suffer it. I am so glad I have my band it is nice and snug and I simply cant eat like I used to and still often would like to! Since I got my band I never dieted and I never really exercised but the band kept me eating tiny meals...the weight comes off without all the crazy stuff we do before the band! PS use this site to get lotsof support!! I always advise newbies to read band_groupie's blog The Sweet Spot from the beginning...it will make you laugh and cry and KNOW you are not alone!! Good luck..

Oh and also my doc stitches the stomach together by pulling a little piece from above and below the band and has NEVER had a slippage...please dont get your stomach cut out and tossed in the trash because of fear of complications. The FACT is that complications are much greater as you choose a more invasive procedure. You are at less risk with the band than sleeve. I am a complete no willpower diet failure and I am finding this easy. I cant eat as much as my piggy self wants to and I just keep losing weight...I dont exercise. I am in a size 8 now and started in a bursting 16...good luck!!!

Get yourself some one-cup sized bowls...they're tiny! Start with half full bowl of protein every meal. After that try to eat some fruit and veg. Eat only when hungry and try to get at least 60gm of protein a day. If you can eat more than 1 cup of solid food you need a fill. I am very tight in the morning so I always have a premier Protein drink...they are in a case at Costco. 160 calories and 30 gm protein. I never count calories because I cant eat enough for it to matter unless I ate ice cream (slides thru band) all day. Good luck, I think you will get lots of good support here but yes, it can be a bit overwhelming.

For both of you that are relatively new, I recommend reading the entire blog of band_groupie. Its entertaining and you will laugh and cry. I think it will really help you through these phases...the early one is called bandster hell where you have gone through all this stuff including surgery but still dont have enough fill to help you. The blog is here somewhere and its called the sweet spot but its also on google now. I found it very comforting, reassuring, and motivating...good luck!

Premier is the way to go and our Costco just got vanilla which I prefer...I have one every morning...

Premier is the way to go and our Costco just got vanilla which I prefer!

Hang in there! My doc has said if you are less than half filled you basically dont have a band. Keep getting fills! My doc accesses the port while you are lying flat then cranks up the table so you are sitting up. She has you chug water and injects fill at the same time...when I choked on the water, she said, "Perfect!". And it was. I can only have liquids or mushies in the morning (well worth it) and then at dinner I am lucky to be able to eat one slice of pizza with lots of chewing. Evening its a little looser and requires a tad of will power. After that choke/fill I am at 7.5/10cc band and I am losing about a pound a week with no real effort or exercise! I went many months without a fill and thought that since I was maintaining it was my fault I wasnt losing! If you are dieting/counting calories/ exercising to lose weight etc....YOU DONT HAVE ENOUGH FILL! When you are filled right, this is easy! Good luck!!

Love the reference to Maslow's pyramid...I have always believed that since I (and most of modern society) have all the basics I can worry about trivial shit like cellulite and Spanx! May have to go do some subsistence farming to teach myself a lesson. I may take your lead and rewrite the pyramid for me and my issues...might put it on the Holiday card if it turns out cute and not too depressing!! Take care gitl...oh and my bday is June 10! Were geminis and gems!

This new format is weird! It stretches out everyone's profile pix so they look fat but like a funhouse mirror! Anyway congrats on the pants size. I know I am really a size 10 because that's my size now at the Gap but my Levis are an 8 so I literally keep the sticky Levis 8 Short tag on my mirror! I started in the same style of Levis but they were a bursting 16! Good luck to all!

We will always struggle I think with the way we used to eat and the way we will probably always want to eat. But when your restriction is good, and it WILL be, you just cant and dont want to binge. I am at a great restriction now and the other day I was feeling guilty for a binge...I was shopping at TJMaxx, I was starving, so I bought a box of those little marzipan fruits...well to make a long story short after I got home and unpacked everything I realized I had eaten TWO of them! Before my band I could easily have eaten a whole box of 12 or maybe more and I'm pretty sure I did! Good luck...when you are at your sweet spot fill-wise, its pretty easy. Take care!

I am a big fan of the Premier Protein drinks which come ina big box at Cosco. They are like a small choc milk carton and they are 30 gms of protein for 160 calories. I am a long ways out from being banded but I am tight in the morning so I drink one every day. I feel like I am half done with the days protein after having one in the morning. Good luck.

I disagree about the band not restricting how much you can eat. I am restricted on how much I can eat. I read some of the posts on what others are eating and there is no way I could get all that down! I can eat about a half a cup at a time and I am never hungry till the next meal. I try to eat 4 of these meals a day and make sure I get enough calories and protein for the day. I have 5.7ccs in a 10cc band and I feel great and have lost about ten pounds in the 5 weeks since that last fill.

Well here's my story for you because I also have a 10cc band. I had 5cc in there for the longest time and hit a plateau for TEN months!! I thought because I wasnt gaining and I was having to yak once in a while I had good restriction and just needed more self discipline (if I had that I wouldnt need the band!) Anyway I went to a doc a lot closer to my house and she said half full is NOTHING! and she couldnt believe I hadnt gained it all back. She literally injected the fill with me chugging water at the same time. When I choked on it she stopped.So now I am at 6.7 (I think) and for the first month I could barely eat solids and it was hard to get ENOUGH calories in! I lost ten pounds that month and it has loosened up a little. Why did I wait to get serious about this fill???Good luck.

I was kind of hoping these prices would come down because of the economy and I had heard that a lot less people were getting PS or any elective procedures because of it...apparently not! I self payed for my band so I am dreading whether to fork over the cash for PS!

Thanks, Shalee! Thats what I am hoping for but it sounds like a lot of people didnt really lose weight or a size! I was hoping to get to ten pounds from goal and then kind of get there with the surgery! Are you happy with the result?

Thanks for an excellent and well-thought out reply. That totally makes sense.

Ok, other than a scheduling issue (pregnant plastic surgeon with due date approaching!) why would or should anyone get PS before they reach goal? I'm trying to decide what to do myself so I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this...Thanks so much.

Part of why these seromas form or why wound healing is slow is the layer of fat we have. The more fat that blood vessels have to get through to get to the wound, the harder it is for them to heal. My point is, after this all heals and you have lost a lot of weight I hope you will realize what a huge thing you have done for yourself! You will likely need some kind of surgery as you get older (prob we all will) but you will be much better to heal and survive the stress of even a big surgery because you are at a normal weight. Hang in there...you have done something amazing for your own health!!

Not sure what you guys mean by a meal...less than one cup? If you can eat only about that and stay satisfied for 4 hours and are losing weight I think that means youre pretty good.

Dear Melissa, I looked at the Hungry girl mugs and they look great. But can I just use a regular egg? I dont like to eat anything fake and I have no need to limit calories or fat or whatever...I have very tight restriction. Thanks!

Thank you for the reply. Yes its hard not to let that scale tell us who we are! Good luck!

Yeah, I'm great about not drinking with meals (well, I'm tight now so I cant) but I need to drink more the rest of the time! I just HAVE to have a water bottle near me or I never think of it...the thing is, I NEVER get thirsty! Weird!!

Dear violin. I have been drinking it every morning for more than a year and have never had a bad one. Its superexpensive online...find someone who has a membership to get you a box. It onlu comes in choc and I am not a big fan of things hat are flavored chocolate but this just tastes like choc milk...no weird vitaminey or proteiney taste! I have seen those reviews too and I know Cosco would take it back if there was a prob.I dont suppose you live in California or I would get you some!!

If you are drinking near or with meals you are not using your band.You are sliding food through..its an important habit to get into for the long haul. Whoever said to get the taste of the meal out of my mouth should try brushing their teeth...it really helps you stop eating and not want to eat for a while...good luck!