KimDB

I had my surgery in May. I have to say that the best thing about the past two months has not been trying to lose weight - I have just been adjusting slowly to having this band and eating slowly and consciously. The best thing has been living my life - going to parties, tasting what I want to taste, even going to McDonald's and knowing that I am not going to eat an entire meal. I have a few bites and I am done! It is a miracle to me and I am just enjoying being where I am right now. Not trying to be a model tomorrow. My blood pressure is going down, my largest clothes are donated ... I am just enjoying every today. This was my goal. But, the best part. Today I hopped on the scale after 3 weeks. I thought, seriously, I had been on vacation, then under stress, and was eating whatever I wanted ... fully expected to see a gain since surgery. Instead I saw a loss of 6 pounds since 3 weeks ago. And, let me tell you, I weighed myself clothed and at 7pm, after dinner. I am beyond thrilled. Thrilled. Thrilled !!!! Did I tell you how happy I am to have made this decision?

Everyone else has said it ... different surgeons have different rules, different people have different success rates based on doing different things that end up being right for them. What's right for one person might not work for someone else, etc. and so on. My surgeon was very up front with me that no one expects 100% perfection in following instructions, that is not life ... but that said, as a band patient you should expect to alter your lifestyle. The instructions are tips to help you figure out how to use your tool as effectively as possible and adapt it to your lifestyle. This forum is so helpful for that - I pay more attention to the advice in those posts where I look at really amazing ticker numbers on the bottom. On the other hand, I pay somewhat less attention to the ones that seem to half treat surgery like it's admission to the Church of the Band. We were all overweight to begin with, and it bothers me that post-band some people seem to start to sound as if they feel they are "better" or more "ethical" than others ... it's not a moral issue, it's not a competition between forum members. Am I the only one who notices there is almost a note of anger sometimes from posters who "follow the rules" towards posters who say they don't follow certain rules? Either answer the question, or don't, but why get angry at or sarcastic towards someone for asking a question? If they don't lose weight, it will be their own issue ... it's not like they are sinners.

My surgeon said the same thing to me - once I attained the weight loss they wanted me to have, they just told me to maintain it. In previous dieting attempts, I did exactly what you did. I stopped looking at the scale because I did not want to see a number. I kept telling myself I would get back on track and look at the scale when I had a feeling it would look better. Of course I just stopped looking at the scale altogether. Since beginning this process, I have purchased 3 new scales! I keep them in my basement gym, the bathroom and my bedroom. No more cheating and avoiding the numbers. When you said you went three weeks without looking at the scale, this so totally reminded me of myself. Well, you know what the answer is - you lost it before, you can do it again. There are no easy ways out. Cutting carbs, increasing Protein and drinking lots of Water can help get a better number on the scale short term. Just a note - although I actually lost several more pounds when they told me to 'maintain' - my surgeon did not weigh me in on the surgery day! They just asked me what I weighed, I told them, and they just wrote down my answer!:tongue2:

All the other replies have really good points to take into account. Just in case it's still only food-related, though, I admit now to being one of those people who just didn't think I was eating *that much*. However, I didn't look at labels, ate too many processed foods, and my former portions, though they fit into a regular Soup bowl, were 2, 3, even 4 times what I can eat now having been banded. Even more if I went back for seconds. I had a real wake up call just yesterday when I went shopping. Earlier this week I had purchased a store-made chicken caesar wrap package, something I enjoyed previously. I used to eat the whole package, which was in four portions. It had chicken breast, lettuce, etc. and looked healthy enough. I knew it had a slice of cheese in there but it wasn't like it was dripping with dressing. Just this past week now that I can eat soft foods and chew them well, I had a day where I bought one and ate one portion, SLOWLY, chewing all the way. For lunch I had another portion, which I ate slowly, chewing, etc. All going fine. I think at dinner I almost had another one but my son came in and asked for the other two portions, so I let him have them. In the store for some reason yesterday I looked at the nutrition label and holy cow! Each PORTION was 320 calories! That 4 portion sandwich was 1280 calories altogether! Worse than a Big Mac. I won't be doing that again! So ... just to say ... check your labels. I think all of us were taking in far more than we wanted to admit.

I had the same thoughts. Who among us didn't like to sit down to a big plate or bowl of something yummy and forget our problems? The only thing is, the food did not solve any of the problems. The problems were still there - and then after eating, there we were, feeling guilty about gaining weight on top of everything. I remember I told a friend, after having thought about it, the only thing I am giving up by having this surgery is the ability to stuff my face - which I shouldn't be doing anyway. I remember also looking through this forum and others, and looking at all the 'before' pictures. I saw many hundreds of photos of people who all obviously loved their food before surgery - and their ticker signatures indicated that the band was working for them 1, 2, 3 and more years out. I thought, if they can do it, I can do it. I couldn't wait for my band, I LONGED for a surgery date, and after 4 months when I got one, and got the surgery, I felt like it was my birthday. I was SO happy! I'm still on a weird plateau at the moment, I was banded only almost 3 weeks ago, but I am still nearly 40 pounds down from January, 2010 and it's weight I do not plan on ever worrying about putting back on again. It is GREAT !!! Food was NOT my friend ... it was my drug. Huge difference.

Thanks for posting this. I am 2.5 weeks post op and have also been at a plateau for 1.5 weeks. It is frustrating when you can really see how little you are eating and how much you are moving. I actually just pushed my butt out to a new gym today that I joined. I started watching season 7 of the biggest loser on my iPod and was really inspired by the merits of hard work. I guess it was just today but I was watching the girl on the green team who lost 20lbs the first week and 1 pound only the 2nd week. It inspired me to keep looking at the big picture and just be so, so grateful I am not trying to eat the plaster off the walls now that I am banded like I always did before. Slow and steady! Well talk to me in another week if I am still the same, as I am planning workouts every day this week to try to move the scale again! :tongue2:

I am not worrying about it. I am 2.5 weeks post op and after a big loss 1st week, have been wavering for 1.5 weeks at 8 lbs down, then 9 lbs down, then 8, then 7, then 9 etc. I am just following instructions and seeing what happens. I did kick it up a notch today and I headed to the gym I just joined to get me off my home exercise equipment and try some new stuff. I am tired! My first fill is July 1st. I am just concentrating on how much I have achieved until this point and that this is the longest sustained time in 15 years that I have had sustained weight loss that is not coming back, and where I have not epically fallen off the wagon and suffered a major setback in my weight, resolve, or hope for my future. :tongue2:

I would ask to participate but not accept any 'prizes' offered for the winner. I do definitely feel that we banders have an advantage that others don't. It is a little like taking steroids. Yes, those who take the steroids hit the ball with their own arms and run with their own legs - but it feels different to them, it's easier than it is to do it without the medical intervention. Does that make sense? On the other hand, if you are not participating in order to deprive someone else of a particular prize or incentive, and just want to get healthy and share some motivation, your coworkers and your company would be really petty for not letting you get healthier right along with them, in the name of camaraderie. Sometimes there are just these things in the office. I remember a bake-off once where one woman in the office who was a regular Julia Child was disqualified from winning (no one could beat her) but encouraged to participate, which she did, maybe just to show off. lol I would sign up for the challenge but tell the administrator that you do NOT want to win any incentives, your only incentive is just to get healthy due to your belief system or something.

I don't know about "slider" food but at day 15, I'm allowed to try regular food with precautions (eat very tiny bites, chew (!!!), swallow carefully and immediately put down anything that causes discomfort. I surprised myself by having some salad today. We had a salad in the fridge and I honestly thought I would just be picking out bits of chicken, bacon, feta, etc. but the lettuce also went down quite easily. I was rather freaked out by that as I had expected to have far more restriction. I am not starving and had only a cup of salad or so, but it was still far more than I thought I would be able to eat. I don't expect a fill until July so hope I am not running into "bandster hell" in the near future.

I didn't lose anything the first 5 days out of surgery, even on liquids only. On the 5th and 6th days, though, wow, I was trying to sleep as much as possible to rest myself (I had tried to get a little ambitious with activity 4 days out and regretted it), and during my naps, I was suddenly sweating out loads of fluids. I had to change the sheets three times in 2 days - and on the 8th day out, I was down 9 lbs from my surgery weight. I am now on post-op day 15 and am that same weight from last week, 9 lbs down, but I will take it. Also, pay attention to the soup you eat. One day in particular last weekend I ate 3 cans of soup. Only about 800 calories, but I gained 4lbs overnight and it took me 2 days to flush my system back out again.

I am only 2 weeks out of surgery and can honestly say I had no idea it would be as easy as it has been to get past my old cravings. I'm not saying it's been 100%, but the times I have thought I wanted something that's not quite on my diet yet, and ventured a bite or two, my body convinced me quite quickly that it was not a good idea and I was right back to soft foods. Bagels were a big one for me ... loved (!) bagels ... but we have a bunch of them downstairs right now and I haven't really looked twice at them. (OK, maybe I have looked twice. But just looked.) In fact I feel bad for a friend of mine who is in a program right now trying to lose 120 lbs the old fashioned way. She is working her heart out at the gym and trying to make "good food choices" but even when she's super proud of her food, and tells me what she eats, it's not only easily now 4 times what I can eat in a meal, but it's obvious it's not even really what she wants to eat. If only I had known more about the band earlier - I could have saved myself some of the same years of trying and trying, but never quite getting there. Just remember you are normal for someone in this population. We ALL had complicated relationships with food and I know I definitely was like "better eat it now in case I can't later!" several times pre-op. Now that I'm banded and find it's probably true in at least a few cases of foods I used to like, I sometimes wish I had been a little more lenient with myself pre-band about the cravings. Then again, I am also happy I stuck to the pre-op diet as much as I did and lost the weight I needed to lose, so I guess I also don't regret passing the cravings up when I did.

Oh no! I am so sorry! Please let us know how things go ... looks like you have done lots of hard work and it's understandable you are anxious and scared. Keeping yourself stressed can only make it worse so hope you can calm down. Don't be afraid to let the medical people know you might need something for your nerves as well as pain? I feel so bad for you!

I have to say I experienced the same thing before the procedure. I frequently felt as if I were being discouraged from the procedure, or being cross-examined, and I did not appreciate it. I also got a lot of the "you know you have to do this, right?" And if I told them I was following their instructions "mostly" they gave me this big frown and a bit of a hand slap and lecture. I really did not get it, since my "mostly" in one case was related to was I doing fully 30 minutes of exercise a day or fully drinking 64oz of water a day. I really did not think these things were 100% a huge deal, and from the classes I was going to, from what I was hearing around the room, there were cheaters all around those rooms. SO, here's what I heard from a friend of mine who is a doctor. He's not in bariatrics, but has had some crossover in his practice. What he said made sense. (And in advance, sorry if this offends some) He said that basically when it comes to bariatric patients, we are, as a group, by and large (no pun intended) a bunch of people who are accustomed to sneaking around, hiding, not giving straight answers ... our first reaction for most of our lives as heavy people has been to pretend that our problem is not a problem. We are in good part a "population in denial". Fortunately by the time most of us get to a bariatric program, we are happy to tell the truth, to finally get it out of our system, give up the ghost and get real, etc. ... but there are always those who are indeed just looking for the next quick fix, and when it doesn't work, they will blame anything but themselves. Therefore the doctors and surgeons who are "hard" on you ask all the hard questions and don't accept the waffly answers. They need to get you to YES I WILL FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS, not "well, I'll try my best but I'm not sure" .... this is for liability reasons as well as your own health. This is why they are military on us before the procedure. They are covering themselves from all kinds of nondisclosure accusations. Ever notice there is often another witness in the room when they have the meetings where they are "hard" on you? They don't want to get sued later for having pushed a procedure on you without full information; likewise, they want you to have a good result - it's good for you and it's good for business. I hope this makes sense - made a lot of sense to me, and I didn't feel so bad when they pushed me at the next appointment. I just said "I know you told me X and I am trying my best to do X and I am confident that every day I am getting closer to X, it's very good advice and you have educated me very well as to what to do." That is what they need to hear.

I had my surgery May 20th. I initially lost 5lbs in a few days, then inexplicably went up a few pounds and stayed there for 5 days. Last night I had the worst night sweats (!) and got up this morning ... all that weight is back off and I am now down 8lbs in 8 days. Nothing like 22 (!!!) but I know what you mean - wow!

Wow, I am also stunned. I can only guess that you are self-pay, which usually finds a way to do anything. I am just amazed that you lost all your weight without the band, though I don't know where you started. Now that I have a band, I do understand that without it, were I myself ever to get to 144, I'd be certain to gain it back, so I do get the logic there. I almost think that your weight loss issues at this point could best be addressed on a standard weight loss board like obesityhelp where you can get the finer tips you are looking for in terms of exercise, etc. to get you closer to your ideal shape and weight. Most of the posters here at LBT seem to be working on fitting back into the normal world, not trying to look like Jillian Michaels.