BUNNY7

I really enjoyed these posts. I have a good 30-40 pounds to goal. All of these posts signify the feelings and struggles we all might have experienced. Keeping out head in the game is so important...game for life. I think it's definitely key to have support and good communication with our lapband doctors. Listening to our bodies is crazy at times because our body signals are sometimes inconsistent. This week my goal is to change up my exercise and focus on better foods ( I mean healthier!)

I am also restarting.....I also have not gone to my doc because I am ashamed of my lack of dedication.
I lose very slow, and I am comfortable at 700 to 800 calories, but will not lose unless I eat 900 too 1100 . straying even a couple hundred is a challenge, as it makes me want to nibble. More then 1200 cal and I basically maintain.
I go a very long time before the scale actually shows a loss too, so I have avoid it. I wish the care after the band was for life. Seems visits and meetings should be mandatory like mammograms and physicals.
Oh well. Day one here we go!!!

I was banded last September so I found reading this thread reassuring on one hand but depressing on the other. I have battled to find restriction and so battled with Portion Control and self control!!!

I could use some motivation. I was banded last April. I lost 30 pounds by late June. Then life came up. I have kept the 30 off, fluctuating back and forth with the same 4 pounds. One of my coworkers had Gastric bypass about 4 weeks before I had the band surgery. She is now down 100lbs and looks fantastic. Everybody is taking notice of her. Then they look at me. I haven't had a change in 6 months. Another coworker asked me last week "So how is that band working for you? Have you seen "other lady", she looks amazing!". Ugh!
I have OK restriction. I only get hungry once or twice a day, but I still eat 3 meals, Breakfast being a Protein Shake. My portions are 1 to 1.5 cups. The problem is that I allowed my addiction to sugar take over again. Since my split (and divorce) from my husband last June I have not been able to go to my OA meetings. I just can't get into the phone or online meetings. I haven't moved my butt enough to exercise either. I have been going through counseling though. Last week he said that maybe I have an agreement with myself that I don't deserve to loose weight. I don't know, maybe?
Anyway, I read that I should do a 5 day liquid diet to shrink my pouch back down. My kids gave me the answer to the exercise thing. They want to do the Taebo DVD with me at night. And I bought an exercise ball for toning and stretching.
I think what helped me before was having an OA sponsor. I had to call in my food everyday. I hated it. But after a couple of weeks I was able to cut out all sugar and stayed that way for 2 months! I think I need that support again. Is there anybody out there that would like to be my band buddy? We can help to keep each other accountable each day for food and exercise.
We all deserve to have success with this. I am grateful for this website and for this string. Thank you for starting it.

Hey Bunny7 - don't lose heart - I've taken a lot longer than most on here to lose my weight - I started with a BMI of 52 and am now down to 29.... 65kgs lost, but it has taken me 3 & a half years - what most would have probably done in 2, however I am still proud of each and every one of those kilos being gone. Just remember that each kilo is a step in the right direction and no journey is always straight - one step forward, two steps back, then you'll take 10 forward and only 2 back - in the long run, you WILL get there!

Oh, phew! I thought I was the only one. I was banded November 2007, lost about 100 lbs in about a year and a half, and then sort of leveled off, about 30 lbs above goal. I wasn't gaining OR losing for a long time. Then I thought my port had flipped, but when a flouro was done, turned out the band was katty-wampus, and tilted at a weird angle. The surgeon thought there might be some slippage, so he completely unfilled me for a couple of weeks.
Then we started re-filling but even though I was less filled than before, it kept being too tight, so we'd take a little out again. Long story short, I had to make two unscheduled trips up and over the mountains last year to get UNfilled when even drinking Water was painful. After the first time this happened in August, started re-filling again a few weeks later, only to have the same thing happen again. So beginning of November, we decided to just let the band be unfilled for a month or two so everything could settle down.
It wasn't until the end of January [because of snow/ice on the roads] that I finally was able to get back to start re-filling again, the first time again with fluoro to make sure all was ok, which it was. Band looks good, and have had two fills now, back for another next week.
But having no restriction for over two months, while a relief in some ways after the misery of being too tight, also meant a BIG reminder that while the band may be an excellent tool for losing weight, it does NOTHING to cure the obesity, or the compulsive eating, or whatever you want to call what got me to 280 lbs in the first place. Oooooof.
At first when I was unfilled, I still ate small amounts, maybe from habit, but very slowly that Always Hungry part of me started to come awake, and I slowly started eating a little more. I've gained about 20 lbs, and have noticed those "I'll never get enough food!" feelings creeping back a bit. I do feel as though I need to start over in some ways, at least as far as my mind-set is concerned. I have been able to eat pretty much anything I want, except in smaller amounts, before all this happened. But eating unrestricted seems to have triggered all the old thinking. Sigh. At nearly 65, it's really annoying to have to "reboot" the whole process. But I am hopeful. Wish us all luck! We did it before, we can do it again.......Diane

Sorry, mixing up your user names.... all this fluffiness is going to my head being a bunny!!!

Thanks so much Diane - I so enjoyed reading your post and how honest and open you were. I related on all sorts of levels and your child picture hit a cord for me too.... so right! Sometimes I;ve felt like just ripping the thing out and saying 'I'm over this!!!" The hard thing is I have a dear friend who had this done a year ago and seemed to cruise through it losing most of her weight in 9 months. Seeing her success helped me make my decision but our journeys couldn't have been more different. Also she was afraid of putting me off so never shared any of her struggles. I had a totally over optimistic outlook despite masses of research on the web prior to the decision. It never really prepared me for the uncertainty, bewilderment, confusion and utter frustration of not feeling what my friend told me to feel for.... She kept on saying 'Listen to your body and it will tell you when to stop" :sigh: - my body is mostly silent = the rebellious pizza incident of last week. My attempt and seeing if anything would happen ... still waiting. Only thing that happened was a weight gain. Haven't done that again though as I'm aware of band erosion and slippage. Do you have support groups there and if so did you use them and did they help?.... Bunny / Des