Betsyjane

Although you read the date wrong, please be careful about critiquing others' weight loss. Everyone is different and needs encouragement.

I have been banded since November. I chew my food well. You don't have to wait until some saline leaves your band. You can request a slight unfill so you can eat. You are new. Please keep reading this site and keep educating yourself.

Wait a minute! You represented the band clearly as presenting these problems in a n ongoing way. That's not fair! I've had each of the things happen that you talk about, but as individual instances only. Frankly, if you can only eat soup, you are too restricted. The fluoroscope can't show you your experience...only you know that. I am restricted. I am losing weight. I eat chicken, fish, occasional bread, meat...you name it. You certainly don't speak for me or anyone else I know!

I think adjusting to your spouse getting a band can really be traumatic, especially if a lot of your relationship revolved around food or around his feeling safe about you when you are big. We think a lot about what we have gone through making the deicision to be banded, and the spouses really don't have anywhere to turn to think it through. fRankly, if he leaves you because of your band, that's not why he left you.... I think as hard as it is to focus on him when you need the support, it might be worth a bit of reassuring him, telling him you love him, etc. My husband decided to be supportive by going on a diet, and promptly lost 20 pounds...show off! People just don't understand obesity. I hear a lot about family members who buy into the infomercials....just eat right and exercise...or you are lazy! I finally decided I would only tell people about the band if I had the time and energy to educate them fully so they would make a minimum of stupid comments to me....

Anybody else want to go? If not, let's put it off a week.....

I'm not perfect. In fact I often have to relearn what I just learned. I've been eating wrong/behaving wrong, and physiologically fat for a lot of years. It may always be a learning process for me, and that's fine. It's an interesting journey. And I knoiw what you mean about not failing again. The lap band was my last ditch solution. I was emotionally and physically devastated by my inability to keep weight off. Remember too that after you get the band, you will still have bandster hell to go through...when you haven't yet had a fill and you can eat elephants and feel totally guilty and defeated about it. At least for me, that was true. So I was sure I was going to fail yet again. Until the restriction is right, you're still mostly living like you have no band.... It'll definitely teach you patience! Good luck and let me know when you get you band!

It's a great point. Almost everybody succeeds in losing at least half of their unnecessary weight. But like any support group, people come here when there are problems so it always looks disproportionally like there are lots of problems. People who are cruising along are out living their lives. I'm beyond the half way point in my loss...got there in 6 months. I wouldn't trade my band for anything. I really think that no matter what you've been told, you just dont' know the band until you get to know yours personally and it's an interesting journey. Along the way, I've learned that I eat out of boredom, and TV is boring. I automatically eat to numb myself to stay seated to watch TV...so I don't watch much anymore. I learned that I have to eat mindfully, with little distraction, and with great reverence, or I fall into old habits of eating too fast and too big a bite, and my band beats me up for it. I've learned that when I screw up and eat the wrong things, I stop losing weight but I don't gain any! How cool is that. My body just stalls out and waits for me to get back with the program. In the old days, I would have yo yo-ed right back up the scale. I've learned patience...well, some anyway. I've learned that th scale makes me nuts, so I weigh infrequently and go instead by the fit of my clothes...just like skinny people I know! I've learned not to blame myself (usually), and to take life a little lighter. I'm beginning to react as an overweight person but not an obese person. And someday, probably this year, I'll need to learn to be a not-overweight person. I love that it has gone slowly...Actually I've often hated it, but I've had so much to learn that it's been nice to have the time, and to get to know my body again. There are so many little things. I'm too restricted in the morning to eat anything so I have a Protein shake. Just the experience of ONLY eating that for Breakfast has been amazing. My eyes and my head say I'll starve without plates of food, but I don't...and my tummy stays flatter...and sometimes growls. And I like that. Ah I could go on and on......

Lana-are you going to Tai Chi tomorrow night? I'll be there for the 7PM class.

Cyndie, LanaJane, Bikergrammy, Barbara, KittyGlitter.....You guys out there? Are we meeting for dinner Monday night? How about 6:15 PM at Black Eyed Pea in Humble? KittyG, can you join us?

Laugh if you will. I think I have found the perfect Protein shake Breakfast. (Hey can you tell I'm feeling better...I'm gabby again!) EAS or Slim Fast carb control chocolate shake in a blender with 1 spoon of instant coffee, fresh fruit, frozen smoothie fruit, ice, Any whey extra protein, chewable Vitamin, chewable Calcium, and a dollop of Flax Seed Oil. I know...sounds gross, but it gets rid of a lot of requirements at once and takes half the morning to drink it.

I do instant coffee IN my morning protein shake...along with ice and fresh fruit, extra whey protein, and my chewable vitamin...all in a blender...

Barbara-I just read something here about a woman who had chronic esophageal irritation or sensitivity. She didn't feel it, but she just couldn't handle a fill. I should have copied it-sorry. The Dr. told her to cut out salt and put her on a diuretic. No info about whether it worked yet.

Barbara....Are you thinking that your esophagus swells and that that is the sensitivity? I wonder if there's something that can be done for that...... Hi KittyGlitter! I have this standard t-shirt that I wear to bum around in. It's been fun going down through the sizes... Today I bought a size smaller than I am curently wearing, and it's not too bad... It's too snug, but not bad at all. I'll get there soon. Now, they do run large in size, but get this...IT"S A MEDIUM!!!!!!! Oy. I don't remember what decade I ever wore a medium.....and I don't really yet, but it's close.... Hey Lana, if you are out there, I'm going to Tai Chi Thursday if you want to meet there..... Hey BikerGrammy.....How did you like the DVD?

Or at least no more fills until they track down and fix what ails ya! I KNOW it's bad when you aren't doing queso!!!!!!!

Hey Kitty... Look under Barbara's signature at the number of fills and unfills she's gotten. She's really sensitive to them!

Isn't life interesting. After a 2 month plateau...well, barely losing anyway...I am back to losing. I'll tell ya, in my old life, a plateau would have been followed by a huge gain! It is such a gift for me tha tmy band lets me sort things out and head forward without losing ground.

I wonder if there is any research about this. Surely it happens to others. Could part of it be that Omnipack is a bit more unforgiving? I dunno. Seems like someone should know. Have you asked that lap Dr. that posts on this site if he has any answers? I think it's Dr. C?

Good grief, Barbara. that's amazing how sensitive your system is! Can you eat after hot liquids still, or are you pretty much out of commission? Sorry to hear about your extended PBing.

Funny. I stopped in Hasta La Pasta for lunch yesterday. I remember the old days of paying $10 for lunch. They brought water, rolls, and dipping oil, and I ordered a side salad. Nibbled a bit of roll, at 2/3 of the side salad, and received a bill for $1.23..... I tipped more than that....

Yep. A rheumatologist is a must! And a Lupus support group. There's also a great book at Barnes and Nobles called, I think, The First Year with Lupus. It was so helpful to me. I sure wish Lana would get unpacked in her new house and rejoin us here! I want to hear how Weight Watchers is going!

Great post Holly! I have done so many "licking the cheese off" kinds of things in my eating history! I'm going to try eating naked in front of a mirror. I'll post again when I quit laughing.

I was just over at GNC this morning. The Isopure is 40g whey Protein and no carbs. I guess all you'd be missing is some of the vitamons they put in the shakes, but you'll be on a daily chewable Vitamin anyway.... The flavors were way out there....blue raspberry, etc. I think I might try one sometime. The Isopure will probably suffice for the protein he wants you to have..... The EAS carb control is a pretty thin chocolate shake.....Be use to get carb control.... I know. The portions seem unbelievable, don't they? Oddly, after you get the band AND get the correct fill amount, you'll find that you get full after a small amount of food. I found that my eyes and my head didn't believe it at first, so I kept thinking it just shouldn't be. Then you find yourself ordering an appetizer and you're full. Or always taking a doggie bag home....or just nibbling off someone else's plate and you're finished. It's pretty amazing. It's kind of an art and a science, though. Your band gives you some prtion control, bu toyu also learn over time to listen for those first signs of fullness so you hear it whisper before it has to shout. You really do spend time learning to live with your band, and it takes on a life of its own as it becomes your new best friend. Foods we can't eat... It really is individualized. Many of us can't eat carbs because things that can turn glue-y just plug up that little hole and then we PB and slime. But crunchy style carbs seem to go down better and don't form a dough ball. But I read that some people eat sandwiches regularly. I can't eat stringy things like frozen spinach. I used to love chicken, but beef does better for me. Shrimp is iffy but crab and lobster work. Go figure. And it depends whether you have good restriction or are waiting for a fill.... And whether you chew things well enough that just about everything will go through. It's really all about handling whatever food you eat in a way that will allow it to go through an opening the size of a pencil. While you want food to go through, you want it to eventually be "difficult" (solid) food rather than liquid food/soups/ice cream ,etc. You want to chew chew chew, and fill the little pouch so you feel full and don't want to eat. Liquid foods just go on through, giving you mucho calories and no sense of fullness. So you'll eventually settle into some version of eating Proteins first at your meals, and veges second, and then whatever you have room for...equaling somewhere between a 1/2 cup total of food, and 1.5 cups, depending on the day. Hard to believe, isn't it?

Isopure has a clear Protein drink, in different flavors. They have it at GNC, and there may be less expensive places to get it as well. I haven't tried it, being a fan of chocolate, but I've read about it a lot on this site. Might be worth buying a single bottle at GNC to see if you like it and then checking eBay or Walmart..... Powder is fine for the pre-op, but some doctors don't want the Protein Drink to be powdered post-op. I've also heard about little liquid shots of protein that you add to Water. Go to the food section of this site and search the protein drink thread. You may have to search isopure or start a thread to ask about Protein drinks with no milk.

You and me both! I used to get frustrated when I hit plateaus, but lately, I kind of get a kick out of knowing that plateaus are now just that, and not a pause on the way to regaining my weight. Nice glass ceiling....

I was self pay. I contacted Dr. Spivak (lap guy) first. He and his office have done this so many times they were able to guide me through it as they guided the insurance folks through the hoops they needed to jump through...