thsisme

It looks like we are all doing well which is always good to see. With getting back onto the wagon (so to speak) to continuing to search for what works for us it seems we are set to continue the process. I am exercising, though I hate it so! I have had to be extremely tough on myself or I will find some excuse not to exercise..I become an expert at arguing with myself when it comes to getting my exercise in and not allowing inner self get the best of me!

I gained 3 lbs with an over night stay. It was just the good ole body retaining the fluids that went into my IV and what I was drinking my body didn't get rid of the fluids however, by the end of the first week after surgery I had dropped that weight and more.

I too would do this process again in a new york minute! I have been lucky so far with my band. Early on I had a three day bout with an irritated stomach that would spasm at any unannounced time and it took around 4 months for the soreness around my port site to settle down. I work my relationship with food, I have like many others who have posted here discovered my trigger foods and I stay away from them, I have discovered tricks to assist my psychological status when eating such as using the bread plate for my main meal plate, I stay away from bread and instead of the fatter seasonings/flavorings, I now use herbs and blends to flavor my food. Know that the band will not do it alone, it takes you to work it and never take it for granted because there are ways to make those slider foods your main stay. Whether or not you loose your weight slowly (I have to interrupt myself here and say...what is losing weight slowly vs fast?...Isn't the point is to lose weight within your means?) easier said than done I know because sometimes we compare ourselves to others and this process is an individual one and what works for one person does not work for someone else and we have to find out what works for us on an individual level. I for one hate exercising, I don't care about the endorphines...I hate to exercise, so I work it, I do not allow myself to excuse myself out of exercising... IN the end we need to learn to forgive ourselves when we do make mistakes and pick ourselves up and continue on towards where we want to be. I have found the most amazing and yet simplistic act in learning how to forgive myself when I fall off the food wagon to have resulted in empowering me to continue the process when before I would have just given up and continued to beat myself up on being the failure that I knew I was gong to be. Now, I'm not a failure, I am a human being who has learned that what truly doesn't kill you will only make you stronger!

IT is scary, however, with that said, it is also an exciting time in your life and you are sensing the potential change and as humans, the majority of us hate change. The unknown and the so called "faiures" in the past are scary too! This is normal and you have to decide who is going to win the battle. Are you doing this for others or are you doing this for yourself? Perhaps you are doing it for both others and yourself. For once do place yourself in front and take a day at a time. As you lose, you will start to see and believe that you can do this. You will feel better, will look better, and will discover small joys that you have never thought of...the NSVs of life when losing weight. remeber this is a process and you are going to have to work the process for you to succeed anyone thinking differently is only fooling themselves. Remember too that there will be bad days, days of struggle, days of self doubt, days of frustration and perhaps disappointments. You have to be able to put them into perspective, lean on those that you can or find folks that you can count on...many do not have reliable support sources in their lives so they seek support on areas such as this one. Either way can work to let you know that you are not alone and that in and of itself can be comforting. We are here for you as we know you will be here for us! I wish you success, luck and the joys of being a bandster!

Nothing left to say that the other folks have not already expressed except to say that I am really glad that you are going to be ok. Take care

Congrats to all! Sparky 1582 what a feeling to experience and to stay on track with your meal portions why to go! Dave, congrats on the smaller anticipatory pants. Nice surprise to experience. I am currently down to the size that I was in my mid twenties.

Betsy B. stated it right when she stated that the way we learned to feel full is never going to happen to us again (stretching of the stomach)and we must learn new signs in which to identify that we are satiated.. this is something that is not always easy for any of us, but we learn what works for ourselves. This process is an individual work of art and the amount that we can eat does vary from person to person. Literature tells us that the "normal" amount of expected loss is approx. 1 lb / week and this will flunctuate depending upon our bodies, what we eat, and our activity levels and then there are those that do everything right and still struggle to lose the lbs. I guess the trick is to continue to learn new behaviors and continue to fight to find out what works for us. easier said than done...but it can be done. Unfortunately, each physician has their own way of doing things and there is no standardized way / receipe to go by. I told my physician that I was tolerating 3 oz of protein with a cup of veggies instead of what was reccomended (2 oz protein and 1/2 cup of veggies) he told me that as long as I was comfortable and loosing the weight then to continue with what was currently working for me. However, he did say that when the time came for a fill I should be prepared to potentially change my eating habits again.

I believe that this is normal for most of us. Surgery of any type is a major situation to go through and should never be taken carelessly. This is an individual decision and you might want to do some thinking on whether you are ready for WLS. Nothing wrong with this, you do want to make sure that you are fairly comfortable with what you are going to be taking on...changing your life style, etc....Anastasia566 is right you can back out anytime. Everyone approaches this differently and there is no one path to follow to the answers, just know you are not the first and you are certainly not the last to have cold feet. I wish you luck

I vary my daily excersise with the stationary bike, elliptical, treadmill. Usually 4 days a week I exercise 30-40 minutes and for the remaining 3 days of the week 60-70 minutes. Seems to be working for me.

LOL! I love it! The men in our lives ....Mine told me the other day that he was so proud of me. I thanked him and asked him what for? And Bless his Lil ole heart...stated in all seriousness...Babe! your butt has wrinkles in it! There we were him looking so proud of his compliment....me about to faint and running to the mirror!

I took three weeks off total. Originally I had planned o 2 weeks, but developed stomach spasms on the second week, so took an additional week off to get that under control.

Fluffytofabulous is right. Walk even if it is a small distance multiple times through out the day, walk around your home, walk, walk and then walk some more. When you lie down or sit try a heating pad on warm to take away some of the aches and pains. Good luck

I've given up soft breads and beef. Sounds as if your stomach may be irritated and it is letting you know. When my stomach was irritated, I went back to liquids, drank warm peppermint tea for 48 hours and then re-introduced foods. Good luck

Welcome everyone! This site is an interesting site and has all of the personalities that you could ask for both pro and con the band along with the human side of the personalities. It is in the end a great site for education and knowledge from those who have and are living the banded life. I wish you all luck on your journey to getting banded and then on the process that will become yours to travel and implement post op!

I have to agree with everyone. We run, we take care of and we tend to place everyone and everything before us and then there is the point that as nurses we learn how to inhale our food as well as grab whatever sweet items that are in our path to give us that extra burst of energy. At the end of a 12 hour shift I went home to my family and dealt with what needed to be dealt with there never made time for myself or disciplined myself to exercise, eat right. I just ate, went to bed and got up to do it all over again. Years down the road here I am looking at myself wondering what the hell I'm going to do with retirement around the corner and looking at a secondary career and whatever else may come down the road with the kids grown and mostly out on their own and I realized that if I am going to do the things that I want to do...then I had better start taking care of myself and so here I am learning new habits and gladly banded developing a new me ...physically that is...

After work I come home and exercise for about 30-40 minutes, have dinner that is what works for me and has kept me from becoming a raving munchie nut!

you have already empowered yourself by starting again. So you hit a hole in the road. You have picked yourself up out of the hole and are now going forward again and that is what matters most. I learned a very valuable lesson a month or so ago and that was to forgive myself. Stop beating myself up...recognize that I am human and I am going to make mistakes, however, what matters is that I pick myself up stop self fulfilling my destruction, my weakness and move forward. No need to be ashamed...why be ashamed about the fact that you are human? Keep on track and learn from your mistakes, forgive yourself and continue towards your goal!

Fabulous! Keep it up! and let us know how you are doing!

HIGHEST WEIGHT - 320 LBS GOAL WEIGHT - 155 LBS SURGERY DATE - 08/23/2010 WEIGHT ON DATE OF SURGERY - 320 LBS CURRENT WEIGHT AS OF 01/14/2011 - 244 LBS

The hearing of your stomach growling and not feeling the sensation of hunger is normal for some folks. Your nerve in the upper part of your stomach that sends the message to your brain so that you feel hunger has pressure from the band. This may last for some time or as the stomach swelling goes down may not continue on. being that you are still on liquids, even though you are taking in nurishment it doesn't "fill" your stomach and along with gas it may be rumbling around. Walk, walk, walk and then walk some more to get rid of the gas from the surgery even if you walk in small bits at a time, that will assist your body in removing the gas from the surgery. I was banded in August of 2010 and I still have no hunger sensations, but will experience a rumbling of my tummy time to time depending upon when I last ate. I have been very open about my surgery as I don't care what other people may think and those that I do care about I wanted them to be aware so they did not think that I had some kind of traumatic illness and start those rumors. The only person I did not share up front with was my mother who is dealing with illness and has always had a deep rooted fear of surgery. I did not want her worried about me, but did tell her afterwards and even though I am 52 years of age...whew she chewed me but good for treating her like a child. I have learned my lesson and have promised to not keep her in the dark no matter how scary it might be to her. Congratulations to everyone who has been banded! I wish you much success!

Keep moving and do deep breathing exercises every few hours. Sometimes the diaphram gets irritated as the surgeon was doing his/her thing banding you some body parts are moved ever so slightly up against the diaphram and irritated it ... along with the gas pushing everything up..it doesn't help. Zeniada, good to see you are posting, I was hoping that you were ok.

Doctor sometimes knows best or at least what they want you to do. Mine had me take a high potency Vitamin twice a day, Vit D and B1 once a day (B1 for 6-8 months post op). I could not stand the taste of the chewable so I started with bariatric Advantage's powder multi vit. it is gritty, but no after taste. Caveat: you have to take it three times a day and it has no Iron in it so I have to supplement my iron too and I mix it in with my Water allotment. My labs have been great since I started to take the iron supplement. I think the brand and type is a very individual thing.

sounds like we are all hanging in there and getting on to the right track. It isn't easy, however together we can do this. We've faced our demon for the holidays and some of us got lost, we forgave ourselves and put a plan together to get back on track. Everyone who has posted here is a winner and we will win this weight thing. The only thing that I have read here is that we all are human... Kelly, you are such an inspiration in encouragement....I love your posts!

Sorry that you're having a rough time of it. Not knowing your intake and types of intake or the temperature of them...Have you tried liquids at room temp or even warm? Not hot and not cold. Your stomach is probably very extremely irritated. I know mine was. I sipped warm peppermint tea for two days until my stomach started to settle. I walked and I walked some more. Try a warm heating pad over your tummy. How are you doing now?

It is never too late to change! Congrats on your decision and I wish you the best of luck. This site is pretty good at covering most topics/concerns that you might have.