viking_girl

I am so glad you mentioned that because there have been so many times when I have had hormone issues and get incredibly tight.... especially when my hormones are messed up more than they are not! I didn't know if other people experienced that..... been on mostly liquids for about a week now...

I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE Sobe drinks..... there is the LifeWater, and and the Sobe LEAN. (Regular Sobe drinks have calories!) I hate Water, but when it is 100 degrees outside, it goes down with less complaint. I usually buy bottled water or the gallon jugs though because I can take the chemicals in the tap water. And yes, I am a recovering Diet Coke addict. I have not had a Diet Coke for almost a year and there are still days when I would give anything to have a good, cold Diet COke.

OK... good news first...... 10 more pounds and I have made it to 100 pounds lost. I can do this!! Bad news.... had 1 cc removed from my band today. It was so tight I couldnt get liquids down, and it is too hot to wait out the water retention cycle at the risk of dehydration. And I was stuck besides!! I do have to say it was a gigantic relief and the funniest thing was hearing the water gurgle from my pouch to the stomach..... kinda like when you unplug a drain!! That will make the next 10 pounds a little tougher, especially because I would like it off in the next two weeks..... my original goal was to make 100 pounds before my boyfriend comes home from Alaska. But, he surprised me and he is coming home in 16 days.... a month ahead of his original schedule!!! So..... I will be working harder than ever at the gym in the next two weeks! Yikes!!!

Thank you so much!!! It does me good to know that the weight loss will still happen afterward. A good night's sleep with no acid reflux was even better!! Ten pounds is not a difficult goal, so I am just going to work hard at it..... of course I will have to leave some time for shopping too because I almost literally have NO clothes that fit properly anymore.

I have been banded since October and just got a nice case of bronchitis. My doc prescribed an antibiotic that comes in a sorta large capsule. I am really worried about it getting stuck.... any ideas on how to help it go down well??? I am going to take it with a hot drink tonight and see how that goes. That is.... if I can get some nourishment down first. Amy

I usually had cream of wheat for breakfast, with a bitty spponful of homemade fruit jam, or maple syrup. Cream soups for lunch..... another of my faves was refried beans, top with a little slice of pepper jack cheese, pour a bit of enchilada sauce over all, microwave until cheese is melty. I can handle a small amount of food, but it better taste GOOD!

My favorite is GNC's Chocolate whey protein......and I mix with sugar-free carnation instant breakfast. Be sure to experiement with different forms.... soy, whey, egg white.... to see which you like best.

This month was a tough one and it shows. I weighed in on Friday and my weight-loss for the month was just five pounds. I know that is still a perfectly acceptable number, and I know how hard this month was, so I am trying not to beat myself up over it. But I can help but be disappointed. The big thing is that my boyfriend is working out of state for 3 1/2 months. While he is gone, I plan to occupy my time without him by reaching one or maybe two major milestones. With a 29 pound weighloss, I will have lost 100 pounds total. But if I step it up a notch, and shoot for 41 pound weightloss, then I will be under 200 pounds for the first time in probably 15-16 years. So.... five pounds toward that goal. NOt bad. BUt it could have been better. So... what was the issue. The hardest thing was the water retention. It was just flat out strange this time. I had a hard time with food, and sometimes struggled with liquid. The weird part is that I suddenly started experiencing acid reflux. After about two weeks, I was finally ready to go for an unfill when suddenly one day I went to the gym, I was down five pounds, I could eat, and the acid reflux went away. Which says to me.... water retention hit me again. During this two weeks, I drank a lot of liquids. Some protein shakes, some flavored waters, a lot of chocolate milk and juice. I was trying to keep my blood sugar up. But I think there is every possibility that I drank too many calories? I also had a very busy couple of weeks..... getting boyfriend ready for Alaska, spending all the time I could with him, and after he left...... working, taking care of my house, his house, the house we just bought, the veggie garden..... the kids just got out of school for the summer.... so it has been a little nuts around here. Which means some days my workouts are a little bit of yardwork. And I am the kind of person who doesn't lose weight without 5 days in the gym. Those are the two biggest things I can identify. So..... this week, I am trying to get my life back to normal, which means all five days at the gym. And, I will try to increase my water consumption. That is super hard for me because I really hate water. That will only help slightly with the water retention, but I can't do much about the hormones. My next weigh-in is July 9.....four weeks. This is another thing..... need to keep my eye on the next four weeks only.... not the 15 until the boyfriend comes home. Just four.

Do your research on both, and then make a decision based upon what is right for you. For me..... a single mom with four kids...... the risks involved with banding were much less than bypass, which was important to me and could be different for you.

There really is nothing easy about it. And it is so much more than just learning new habits. Any weight loss program requires that we learn new habits in order to be successful. You have to learn the new lifestyle, you have to learn to listen to your band. No one can tell you exactly how it will work for you because it is different for everyone. You have to learn to watch things like PMS & water retention because maybe your band will be tighter that week than usual. You have to learn that if you get hiccoups, that might mean STOP NOW. You have to learn to be "OK" when your band says your stomach has had enough but your tastebuds want just one more taste or your brain wasn't done enjoying the meal. You learn what to eat when you go out.... the things that will re-heat well because you wont be eating all of it there! I could go on and on and on. The point is..... it is NOT easy, you will not be sitting back eating bon-bons while the weight just melts away. I too spend hours in the gym every week. You now what you have tried, what works and what doesn't. If you want to try this, it can be a great alternative, so go ahead and give it alot of thought. In the end, the only person you owe answers to is yourself.

Twitter is easier to get in and out of that is for sure. Have you been eating more? How do you feel now?

Janet, The thing that I love is that every nurse who works for my surgeon has had the band, so they DO understand, and many times, they know just what is going on with me while I am still scratching my head wondering if I should ask. Not only that, but I don't even see my surgeon anymore anyway, not after the post-op appt. The good news -- I suddenly dropped 4-5 pounds, just since MOnday. "Usually" that is a water loss, so I am hoping to see improvement with what I can eat over the next couple days. I am actually now trying to figure out what to have for lunch. THe one thing I can say is that liquids can become much too simple and it seems like such a waste of time to bother with real food when you cant eat much anyway. But...... I know I have to eat, so I will try and find something to eat here soon.

The last several days have been a little frustrating and I am not sure what is going on. I hit the magic sweet spot 3-4 months ago and the weight loss was going perfect, with the exception of about a week's worth of hormones and water retention. Until..... mid May, I was expecting water retention and it didn't come. Instead, I started having issues with acid reflux. The nurse said I may have to have some fluid removed if it persists. Since then, it seems like I am eating much less, get full much quicker, and when I do get full, I get this tightness in my chest, similar to an anxiety attack. When I do manage to eat, I am full for hours and hours..... sometimes I can't even take a drink even 3-4 hours after a meal. I have been giving it some time to see if all of these sudden changes were hormone related, but after a couple weeks, I am almost ready for that unfill. I am just scared, because I am finally to the point of being smaller than I have been in YEARS and I want to keep seeing progress.... I am scared of the progress stopping. Is it normal for the sweet spot to become too tight? Or is this what it fills like to get stuck? If I have to get an unfill, will I eventually be able to get the fluid put back in? :thumbup: Follow me on Twitter.....http://twitter.com/lifeafterband

Thanks for that Barbara, that makes me feel much better about trying the unfill. But, it is a 90 minute drive to get it done, so it might be a week before I get to it.

What you described is similar to what I experience when I get the water retention .... tighter than usual, then back to normal. But all this other stuff is just weird.

Amey, you are not doing a thing wrong, believe me!! Everything that you are experiencing is completely normal. The restriction at the very beginning comes from internal swelling. As your body heals following the surgery, you will fill a lot less or no restriction. When I had my surgery last October, I was advised to eat until I felt full.... to allow the band to do its job and tell me when I was full. And yes, back then, I could often eat 2 cups..... but that was still much less than I had been eating and I did see weight loss, just at a slower rate than I am now. Once I started going for fills, I went every two weeks. Each time, the nurses asked me how much I was able to eat, and filled me a bit each time. Small little changes, until suddenly one day it was just right. Right now.... if you are hungry, eat!!! Just make healthy choices. If you allow the changes to come slowly, they are much easier to adjust to. Hang in there, be patient.... time has a way of getting by us and suddenly you will be six months out and loving your band! :smile2: Amy Amy (lifeafterband) on Twitter

OK... the good news is I lost 12 pounds this month. I am happy with that. My grand total is 71 pounds lost. I am down to 240..... haven't been that low in ages and I am really looking forward to next month's weigh-in. Maybe. For the last three nights, I have been waking up in the night, coughing, sputtering, my throat burning... it has been awful. The nurse said I may have to have a tiny bit of fluid taken out if it persists. Why would all be perfectly fine for several months then suddenly be too tight? I usually only feel tight when it is PMS time... then I get a lot of water retention and have to stick to liquids and soft stuff for a few days. And... yesterday.... I might have been stuck, but I am not sure. All I know is I was a little tight in the morning, like normal. Doing well at lunch time..... but right after lunch just felt overly full..... achy in my chest, pain in the boob...... everything hurt all the way through to my back. I did OK with water late in the afternoon if I took it slowly, but didn't handle dinner well at all... had only about 4 bites of lasagna... I felt crappy all night, until 1130, when I finally just threw up..... then I was up a couple hours later with the acid. So... weigh0in was nice, but jeez, what the hell is all this other stuff all of a sudden? I am headed to my boyfriend's soon for the evening.... he is always so sweet to cook for me... I just hope I can handle a bit of food tonight.

I know what you mean about the drive... I have to go to Salt Lake City, which is about 90 minutes away, depending on traffic for the day. I love to visit the city, but I have a kindergartener so I usually have to leave as soon as all the kids are on the bus, and then dash to SLC and back before the little one gets home -- some days that is a challenge! This will probably make you laugh, but what in the world is Zumba? I have never heard of it!!

Does your doc allow you to go more than just once a month? I was going every two weeks until I found my sweet spot, and believe me, when you get there, you will know in a matter of days..... no need to wait an entire month. ALso.... every person is different, and it is so hard with kids and all (I have 4!)..... but for serious weight loss, you will probably have to add more work-out days, or more time to the workouts you are already doing. I am going to the gym 5 days a week. I started out at 5 minutes on the eliptical, now I am up to 40 minutes on a good day, plus weight training. And even at that, it took two months for all of that work to show up on the scale. (If THAT isn't frustrating!) And one last thing..... the snacks you have around for your kids.... I don't keep them in the house at all.... I Would eat them if I did. ANd in my case, I can see a couple of my kids already having weight issues, so I decided they dont need it any more than I do. It is a personal choice, but something to consider. Hang in there..... it DOES work out.

I have never been told not to..... I take the caplets (long and skinny) and break them in half before I pop them just to be safe.

I was banded October 5, and so far, I have lost 58.5 pounds. Two months ago, I started going to the gym every day. I started seeing someone in December and he has been so incredibly supportive of the Lap-BAnd, never even flinched when I told him about it. He and I went on our first weekend get-away this weekend. Friday and SUnday were mostly packing, unpacking driving etc. But Saturday..... he spent some time with his buddies in the morning while I went four-wheeling with my camera. Then, in the afternoon, we went hiking. We walked, we climbed rocks, we hiked, up hills and down hills... we just went exploring and I so enjoyed the time with him. But even more, I loved being ABLE to do those things with him. My fitness has improved SO MUCH. I would have never been able to do all that last year. And just think .... the summer is only just beginning!

It is the carbonation that is not good for the band.... it causes the stomach to expand. I am pretty sure the caffeine is still OK because many people still drink their coffee..... but I never was a caffeine addict.... I always loved the bubbly.

It has been SEVEN months, and I am still mourning the loss of my dear friend, DIET COKE. We were instant and loyal friends from the first drink, when I was 12 years old. What I want more than ANYTHING right in this minute: A large, condensation covered glass full of ice cubes and brown, bubbly DIET COKE fizzing on my lip and burning down my throat.Want one SO SO BAD. I miss my friend. I know the relationship was a bad one, I know that I am better off without it. But damn it, a cool glass of chemical- flavored tap water just does not off the same carbonation-filled satisfaction that Diet Coke gave me over the years. I have never been tempted to go back.... just saying.... I still REALLY miss my Diet Coke. :thumbup: :cool2:Have a Twitter account? Follow my rants, raves and successes at http://twitter.com/lifeafterband

I was banded October 5, and so far, I have lost 58.5 pounds. Two months ago, I started going to the gym every day. I started seeing someone in December and he has been so incredibly supportive of the Lap-BAnd, never even flinched when I told him about it. He and I went on our first weekend get-away this weekend. Friday and SUnday were mostly packing, unpacking driving etc. But Saturday..... he spent some time with his buddies in the morning while I went four-wheeling with my camera. Then, in the afternoon, we went hiking. We walked, we climbed rocks, we hiked, up hills and down hills... we just went exploring and I so enjoyed the time with him. But even more, I loved being ABLE to do those things with him. My fitness has improved SO MUCH. I would have never been able to do all that last year. And just think .... the summer is only just beginning!

OH yeah.... my ticker.... never did figure out how to use that thing! I had surgery October 5, 2009.