isaviolinist

I know I can't say anything to make you feel better but I just wanted to say I'm sending all good thoughts to you and your husband. I can't imagine how difficult the news must be to hear, on top of the struggles during the last few years. Go to your obgyn and talk about your options. In the meantime, just focus on taking care of yourself so you can be there to support your husband. The wonderful thing about a marriage is that you have each other to share the burdens that life piles on us. Thinking of you!!

Great attitude! When you think of this as a life change and a constant and changing process, instead of a means to end, it is so much easier to make peace with food and your body. All the best to you!!

I love Soup. I eat it regularly. But I try not to eliminate much of anything from my diet (because this isn't a diet....I'm finished with diets forever) which is different than the way most banded folks use their band.

I have Realize C Band. My surgery date and doc is in my signature.

I have Binge Eating Disorder (BED) as well and I have started seeing an amazing therapist who specializes in eating disorders and has a clinic specifically for those who suffer with BED. While, I only just started seeing her in November or December, she has already helped me change my relationship with food and improve the quality of my life. I feel so grateful to have found her. I definitely suggest seeking out a therapist who deals with eating disorders specifically, and with a lot of experience with BED.

I've also started reading this book: Intuitive Eating

It is an anti-diet book so many bandsters and folks on LBT practice the opposite kind of behavior as is talked about in this book and would condemn it. But basically a lot of the book is about giving yourself unconditional permission to eat. ANYTHING (even chocolate, ice cream, carbs...whatever). And unconditional permission means allowing yourself to eat with no shame, sadness, regret, anger, self deprecating remarks, etc. There have been many many studies on the subject (some of which are outlined in the book) but when you remove the scarcity of a food (or anything), meaning you realize that it is there and available to you anytime you want and you have permission to have it without fear of repercussion from your mind, your family, the scale, etc., your brain realizes that its not necessary to overeat that food. And often, you begin to realize that you dont even LIKE these foods that you once binged on and obsessed about.

Anyways, the book is really an amazing and well thought out approach to eating intuitively (a skill that, for many of us, is buried deeply underneath years upon years of diets and weightloss mantras) and while I haven't been reading it for long, I think it is changing my life. My band is currently filled WAY too tightly and in March I plan to get a complete unfill. It is hard to effectively relearn the skill of intuitive eating or even listen to my natural hunger and fullness queues when I'm throwing up most of my food. I believe that when I really do start listening to my primal queues regarding food, I will return to the weight that my body feels it should naturally be. And even more importantly, I will return to a state of mental and physical health.

Those are my two suggestions: eating disorder therapist and pick up a copy of that book.

That's crazy. I completely disagree with the notion that surgeons are there to perform the surgery and that's it. My surgeon visited me 2-3 times before surgery to help me relax (and I met with him 4-5 times preop). He then came to see me while I was in the ICU. He also made sure that the hospital arranged for a private room for me. And then once I was transferred to that room, he came to see me there and also again before he left for the day. And then he came to see me the next day before I was discharged. All of my follow up appointments have been with my surgeon and no one but my surgeon has ever done any of my adjustments. And honestly, that is my expectation and anything less would have been unacceptable to me. If my surgeon went AWOL after surgery and I never saw him again and he didn't return my calls and emails, I would probably sue him and the hospital.

I posted this just over a year ago, and I SOOOOO needed to look at this again. Since reaching my goal, I have become guilty of the first six things on this list. And now it's time for me to fess up and face the music. I am really struggling lately, especially since my surgery in October. I thought that the LB would be the saving grace, and it has been in so many ways. I've changed my eating habits tremendously. But what I haven't changed is my addiction to food in general. I can't stop thinking of it -- all day. When can I eat again? What can I eat? How much can I eat? Will anyone notice that I'm taking seconds, thirds... fourths?

Is anyone else struggling with this? I need some help!

I suffer with binge eating disorder. I unfortunately didnt really think to start taking care of my relationship with food prior to banding (thus I lost almost 80 pounds initially, and then gained back almost 50 by bingeing...and yes, if you're addicted to food, it is REALLY easy to binge with the band...just think milkshakes). My BED is a daily struggle. I started seeing a therapist that specializes in eating disorders and has an entire clinic dedicated to just treating patients with Binge Eating Disorder. As I said, I struggle every minute of everyday with BED, but seeing an eating disorder therapist has helped a lot. My advice would be to seek out an eating disorder therapist or an Overeaters Anonymous meeting (OA isn't for me, but I know it has helped many many people struggling with compulsive eating). Good luck - you're not alone!!

Hi Edward - I lost about 80 pounds initially and very quickly, but then gained back 50 in a very short amount of time. It really sucked and I found myself just giving up for awhile. In September I decided to get back on the wagon. The hardest part was going back to the gym, making good food choices, logging back into fitday.com, etc. But since then I've lost all the weight I had gained plus more. I'm not sure what to say about getting back into it, but I know I didn't do it until I was ready. Just try to start today with something simple (like taking a walk, or logging your calories for the day). Maybe don't try to do it all at once. Ive also started going to therapy for my binge eating disorder which has been helpful (the band did not fix my head issues with food in any way). Anyways, I'm sure when you're ready you'll get back to it (and it seems like you're moving toward being ready as you came back here to post).

Yay!! That's so fabulous! What are you going to do to Celebrate? ?

That section has been a problem for weeks and is now nonfunctional...I hope it gets fixed because it is how I like to browse.

Mimi

I'm glad its not just me - there is no way for me to view the most recent posts either (and I'm not going to go through each forum category individually). I even tried creating a new account and it was the same. I sent a private message to Alex and another admin and no one replied back to me (big surprise there). I just have not been coming here as often. This site went from being amazing, functional, informative, etc to completely non-user friendly and dysfunctional.

Sorry I didn't check in yesterday. Its because I had nothing good to report :-( Its been a tough couple of days for me. Trying not to beat myself up but its been frustrating. Today was better. I'm up a couple pounds but I never mark the weight increases (unless its significant). As long as the trend is downwards, Im happy with it. Hopefully I'll have something good to report next week. We'll see.

I weighed 283

I'm a little over 5'2

BMI was around 50.9

I can't remember about the comorbidities. I had/have insulin resistance (it wasn't diabetes yet), mild sleep apnea, some joint pain. I guess those were all technically comorbidities but I don't remember what else.

I have BCBS (and my surgery was done at a BCBS Bariatric Center of Excellence so the approval process took like a day...I never waited to be approved)

All of a sudden I've lost 2 friends I added in past few days (one being in the past 24 hrs), and all the forums seem to have gone back a few days. This all happening after another had posted that all of Fridays posts were MIA....is this normal for this website?

I'm constantly having problems with lbt since the switch over. When I click on new content it will show me 1 or often no new posts per hour (it will say that maybe there was only 1 new post from 9 am to 9:59 am and no new post from 10am to noon (which is clearly not true as I can see tons of new entries when I click on the homepage). Alex hasn't responded to me in ages and one of the admins was responding to me and he is completely ignoring me at this point too. I don't know about you, but lbt has become completely dysfunctional for me since they switched to the new "improved" lbt a few months ago. I never had any problems with the old site and the administrators seem not interested in doing anything. It's their loss as many of us who have been banded for awhile and who have been using lbt for awhile are starting to migrate away from the site, thus not contributing valuable experiences. I'm looking around for another band website, as lbt is so cumbersome to use these days (plus I get tired of reading the same 5 new posts everyday...sometimes I'll get 6 new posts on a good day).

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Lindz...if motivation is ur hard point try a class. After paying 30 for a 3x a week month long class I felt like I had to go to get my money worth and it was less expensive then the dvds I bought and tried to motivate myself at home to do. Also you get to know the ppl in a class so it was nice to go and chat with them plus if I didn't go one time when I went back everyone was like "where were u?" it made u come so u didn't have to make up an excuse. I know the money adds up, but if its just for the rain/snow months it should only be a few months a yr then u can go outside n walk instead. Good luck

I totally agree! I go to a cross training class (I pay monthly for however many I want to go to...you can choose once a week all the way up to everyday...I usually go 3 times a week) and I also go to a spinning class (I bought a package of 8 classes and I can use them anytime...I go once a week). Its very helpful to buy those types of classes because you're motivated to use up all the classes you bought and like whey said, people start wondering where you are if you dont come! I also belong to planet fitness (I like that they're a 24 hour gym) and even though its pretty cheap to belong there, I still feel like I want to get my money's worth every month which usually leads to me working out there the other days I'm not cross training or spinning plus sometimes it motivated me to do 2 workouts a day (spinning and PF or or cross training and PF etc). I know there are memberships for planet fitness starting at 10.00/month. I can't remember what that gets you but I know the 20/month membership will get you some free personal training and you can also use any PF anywhere. Joining a gym definitely helped me as far as the motivation goes.

Walking as much as your able will help you. All other exercise should start after your surgeon clears you.

And I'm probably misunderstanding, but were/are you smoking now, right after surgery? Or were the complications as a result of smoking prior to having surgery (I'm assuming you were required to stop smoking for a certain period of time before you had surgery)?

I have seen several posts lately about calories, carbs, fats etc. and I just want to put this out there.

There are 3500 calories in a pound. You must take in fewer calories (if you used to eat 2500 calories a day and now you eat 1000 then you are losing 1/2 pound a day!) and exercise. Walking you only burn about 150 calories per mile (unless you are power walking) - so get moving and start sweating!! If your combination of fewer calories and exercise equals a net of -3500 then you lose a pound (yes there is Water weight etc. but more or less this is true over time).

I am a bit of a number cruncher but I like seeing it in black and white - so hopefully this perspective helps someone. This is also why it is important to track everything that goes into your mouth and your exercise.

This is true, and its something I reiterate over and over on this site as there are many on here who don't think that the science behind calories in vs calories out is true for them (they feel they are a special case). However just to clarify your statement that I bolded above. If you are eating 1500 calories a day less than what you used to, that doesn't equal 1/2 pound loss a day. The ONLY thing that equals 1/2 pound loss a day is a 1500 (1750ish really) calorie deficit a day above and beyond everything that you have consumed. So if you are eating 1000 calories a day, but you're only burning 1500 calories a day, you only have a 500 calorie deficit. So please don't be confused about that concept.

isaviolinist- just imho 33% fat seems high. I would decrease the fat a bit and add in more protien. You may be fuller longer. You will probably find your volume of food can be a little higher if you reduce the fat. Just my .02.

I average 70-95 g of Protein a day. Its actually too much and the last thing I need to do is add more in (I actually may cut back). I stay full for 5-6 hours at a time (I don't eat Breakfast, I have a Protein shake at noon, and then eat dinner between 6-8pm...in between lunch and dinner I usually have one sample at the super market like a cube of cheese, or something similar). I can barely eat the volume of food that I am currently eating, so I don't need to increase it. I lost almost 9 pounds during the month of January and am decreasing my body fat percentage dramatically (I'm about 5% away from a healthy body fat percentage) and am gaining lean mass despite dramatic fat loss (most people lose some lean mass with such dramatic weight loss). So I'm pretty comfortable with what I'm doing now. Thanks for the thoughts, though.

IT really is good I just posted another recipe in the Mushies thread for homemade Tomato Soup you might like 111 cal per serving with very low sodium and it makes a great base to Spaghetti Sauce and Chilli too

I made this for dinner tonite and added some little twists of my own and it was delicious!! I don't eat meat, but I made a "crust" using smoked turkey bacon for my fiance (I just lined the bottom of the pan with the turkey bacon and then filled it in with the other ingredients...I made the quiches in individual pot pie pans so I could make some veg and some with meat) and he LOVED it! Thanks again for posting the recipe!

Isa is right you do have to establish a calorie deficit to lose weight but we all already knew that. The consistancy of your body mass and your relative activity and your age will all affect the weight loss progress. For me at age 62 it's going to go much slower than someone in thier 20's or 30's your metabolism does slow with age per all tyhe doctors I have talked to so it takes more time to lose weight and more work (exercise) to maintain my hoped for new body. I am sure you will do fine and you don't have to spend the whole day working out and starve yourself on top of that to lose. Because if that's the case I will probably fail (I don't intend to do that though )

Wishing you Good Luck and Steady Progress

Julius

Some people around here actually don't really know that and don't really believe that by consuming less energy than you burn, you will lose weight (and they present that information as fact to people who are easily swayed, and who perhaps don't know the science behind losing weight). There are many people on this board who will argue that a 500 calorie deficit per day does NOT equal roughly 1 pound loss per week (hopefully it doesnt, but in case it needed explanation, 500 calories x 7 days in a week = 3500 calories which is a pound). Instead of looking at their lifestyle and asking questions such as, "What is my BMR? Maybe I think I'm burning more than I actually am everyday? How many calories am I eating? Am I slowing my metabolism down so much that my body has reached an equilibrium? Am I fooling myself into thinking I'm eating 1200 calories a day when actually little bites and tastes and Snacks is really adding up to 1500 calories a day?", they tend to just say that the science of calories in vs calories out is wrong or they are a special or different case. So I feel the need to reiterate it as many times as I can.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Can't imagine how onederful that must feel...

I can't wait until I can borrow your post!!! Way to go...

Thank you!!! It really feels great to be living in onederland (and today I hit 90 pounds lost...90.2 to be exact ) - I NEVER thought I'd be here. Its surreal sometime. I'll be looking for your Onederland post soon! Congrats on your awesome loss so far!!

Congrats on everyone's success! I hope to reach my goal for February. Though it is a little bit steep. But definitely gotta aim high. We'll see how it goes.

Here's the link isaviolinist (hope it works):

http://www.lapbandta...arts-challenge/

Hey Va Viv - thanks so much for posting the link for me. It did work and I'm on board for the new challenge now See you there!!

Yay! Can't wait for the Feb challenge!! My fiance and I are taking a late Valentine's Day trip at the end of the month and we're going to a super fancy restaurant and I'm hoping I'll be able to buy a new dress in a regular size for the occasion

Anyways, here is my info:

Name, real or screen: isaviolinist

Age: 28

Weight on January 31st: 194

Goal Weight for February 28th: 187

Exercise Goal for February: Up the intensity in all workouts/continue working out 6-7 days a week

Dietary Goal for February: Continue to be mindful of what I'm eating and what my body is asking for

Personal Goal for February: (similar to dietary goal) continue making progress with my binge eating disorder

Date Banded: June 18, 2009

Total Weight Loss Since Banding: 89 (as of Jan 31)

Hey, can someone post a link for the Feb challenge thread? LBT is completely dysfunctional for me (has been for awhile since the switch over but it just keeps getting worse and admins have stopped responding to my messages...guess they don't care) and I can't see any new posts under New Content (it just says "No new posts to display") and all of the threads I subscribe to under My Content are erased (I get the same error message: nothing to display). So I have no way of accessing it. :-(

My situation isn't really the same as yours, but I struggled with my band for a long while and regained a lot of the weight (50 pounds to be specific) I had initially lost. In September I decided to get back on track with my eating and exercise and I re-lost all the weight I had regained plus more, but I was still feeling like I was struggling and was not in control of my eating. So I started seeing a therapist in December for my binge/compulsive eating issues and it has helped me tremendously. I know that many of the things you're going through aren't directly food related, but maybe you should seek out a therapist to kind of guide you through some of the trials you're going through. Mine has really helped me and I love talking to her every week. It really helps me to get through some of the daily struggles I go through.

Its really hard to determine your calorie needs without knowing your body composition. For me, at 5'2, and with maybe 27-28ish% body fat, 900-1000 calories a day enables me to lose about 2 pounds a week fairly consistently. But if I were 5'2 with 10% body fat, my calorie needs would be different. Its good to just experiment and see what works.

I don't really believe in the starvation mode theory, but what does happen is that your body tries to maintain an equilibrium. And one way it does that is by slowing down its metabolism based on how many calories you're eating. So if you're consuming 800 calories, your body will try to burn less because it is getting less which is why you may start losing less if you eat a very low calorie diet. If you're 6'2 and weigh 190 and its mostly muscle, your body's metabolism would desperately try to slow down as much as it could if you gave it 800 calories a day. But if you're 5'2, weigh 190, and have some lean mass but less than what is healthy, 800 calories may work perfectly fine.

Its always good to listen to what your body is telling you regarding how it feels. So if you're current calorie intake is making you feel sluggish or just not right in some way, it may be your body's way of telling you it needs something different.