Again, please, no judging or lecturing here. I'm just asking an honest question. Who is doing this the tight band way? and if you are doing it that way, you know who you are. Not everyone can deal with the gym and calorie counting. For some of us the quasi-starvation method is what works best. Of course there are obvious side effects and issues with a tight band, but I would love to chat with others who got to their goal like me, with a tight band.

OMG, ARE WE HAVING A MOMENT OF COMING OUT? That's awesome. That's it, I'm officially out of the closet. I'm a tight bandster and proud of it! LOL

I have the night reflux on occasion. At one point I was waking up with the Fluid in the lungs and coughing myself awake. Another few weeks I was waking up with stomach acid shooting through my nose. Prilosec in the morning stopped it and it never resumed. But the nighttime can be tough. I know I can't lie down if I've eaten for hours after. Lying on the left keeps the stomach closed, but sometimes it is what it is. thank you for naming all this, the coming out. Awesome. Congrats on your journey, you look fabulous and good luck keeping it that way :thumbup:

Did I mention when I'm at home I eat standing up? Nothing like gravity...oh, and the only way i can eat is if I have some diet ginger ale. It's like a baby, I need to be burped. My ex used to see that face, you know the face, and would come and bang my back....I'm so jealous you had your plastic work done! I need to find me a rich man :thumbup:

StefanieF.... U r funny. Mexican.... I would have never guessed. I thought you were going to say something like unsalted sunflower seeds and water. LOL. I guess I just told on myself. Honestly, I am not bragging on my disfuntional eating habits but it is the truth. When you get sick and tired of being sick and tired you do whatever it takes.

you made me laugh about "the face". my whole family knows about "the face" .... after they see it...they say "go for a walk" ha!

when i was banded..i was single and hadnt dated for years. after i lost the weight i started dating. i was pretty honest with my b/f Sam early on and he learned about "the face" too...

my band tightens up on it's own when i fly and after i do a stressful workout.

even with being unfilled...i have alot of restriction before dinner.

pretty much Breakfast is either a Protein shake OR cheerios (because i can eat crunchy) and yogurt. i started eating Activia (every morning) and it really helps with the constipation. have you ever tried this. they are pretty yummy too.

lunch maybe a Soup. and then depending on how tight i feel....dinner is normal. but i cant eat everything. chicken is a real issue for me. fish is probably easiest but like you said...mexican is easiest...

my biggest issue now is staying away from sugar. ice cream is a killer.

anyway feels good to share this info with like minded bandsters...

and like was said by others on this thread..."this is our experience we are sharing. i don't recommend it to anyone...and i dont need any lectures. "

anyway i will definitely keep in touch...

josie

So can I ask how you're doing with maintaining? I'm really surprised to hear that with the unfill you still have such restriction! Are you keeping it off? I feel like if it were me I would be so anxious over keeping it off especially after the plastics. Are you exercising like crazy? I'm so intrigued, you're my motivation now! :thumbup:

My goal is to be healthy. IMHO starving oneself and not exercising can't be what the lap-band® was made for - I would expect my body to rebel at this treatment. My doc and surgeon said I have to exercise, in some way, in order to get things moving along...if you know what I mean.

I'm not being critical of you but sometimes things are obvious to people outside of the situation. Then again I'm not even banded yet and looking through rose colored glasses at this point. I hope I control the band and it doesn't end up controlling me. Thanks for the heads up at that possibility.

I hope all gets easier for you and your band :thumbup:

Wow... I am so lucky that I didn't have to go through all the steps you had to, to get approved. My surgery was approved one week after my consult, and scheduled 2 1/2 weeks later. I get banded on Jan. 11.

Did I mention when I'm at home I eat standing up? Nothing like gravity...oh, and the only way i can eat is if I have some diet ginger ale. It's like a baby, I need to be burped. My ex used to see that face, you know the face, and would come and bang my back....I'm so jealous you had your plastic work done! I need to find me a rich man :thumbup:

LOL! Of all the things I might "judge" you for, this is the one that's most likely to get me on my soap box!! Who needs a man to get what you want in life? Did our mother's burn their bras for nothing? ARGH!

PS: You know, if you're going to tout the joys of living with a tight band and how it has been the secret to your success, in such a way that newbies would seriously consider following your advice, don't you think you owe it to them to tell the the full picture of how life has been for you?

I was amused to find this in a thread started by you:

"So, I started having constipation pretty much right after surgery. Surgeon said to take a suppository every day if I needed. So, guess what happened? I became dependant. Throughout the course of that and as the weight loss progressed it got worse. It got to the point where now I had to do the warm Water enemas. I started seeking care from a colorectal doc about a year ago. I had the MRI defecografy, a CT scan and a colonoscopy. MRI showed weak pelvic floor, CT scan showed nothing and colonoscopy showed nothing. I was diagnosed with IBS with constipation. So, in addition to having IBS, I can't even get the stuff out of me due to these muscle issues. I have to take 3 Dulcolax oral pills every night, one Colase morning and night, and all that does is put me in a state of constant anxiety. My docs have me on pain meds which I try not to take since they cause further constipation. I have been given every prescription medication there is including Amitiza, but it didn't work.

My life revolves around the pain, and bloating, and stress of knowing when I go out or have something social to do that I'm going to feel like crap, so I spend the hours before trying to get relief by getting it out of me. I'm to the point now where even creamed spinach is my demise."

Anyone reading this thread and considering following Steph's choices might want to consider the full picture, eh? Life with a correctly managed band is NOT meant to cause these problems.

Thank you Fanny, i was going to bring up the same thing.

This thread is alarming. Not in a judgemental way, some people need more help than others. But this poster is, I believe, in pretty dire trouble.

Night reflux? Gastric complications? Strictly limited diet of unhealthy foods? One day she is gonna lose that band and she has not taught herself one single thing about healthy living.

Being fixated on being thin by doing this to yourself would, I believe, be easily seen to be an eating disorder. Tight bands are one thing, but the posters other thread indicates hers is causing her serious issues.

Um, not like I'm hiding anything here, and I have referenced my gastric problems numerous times in here. So, let's review, shall we? The issues started RIGHT AFTER SURGERY, I didn't have a tight band until about 7-9 months in, as also referenced herein. My body responded immediately to change in diet. the point of my post in the other thread was to seek tips in how to manage it. SINCE I GUESS YOU TWO ARE MY DOCTORS NOW, AND YOU KNOW ALL MY MEDICAL HISTORY AND WHAT PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS I HAD BEFORE I WAS BANDED, WHAT MEDS I WAS ON BEFORE SURGERY I WAS ON THAT I'M NO LONGER ON, ETC ETC, I'M REALLY JUST GOING TO SAY BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH. I STILL WOULDN'T CHANGE A FREAKIN' THING.

So, let's go back, since this started way before I had even close to a tight band, I didn't do this to myself. There are many people in the world who cannot tolerate wheat, gluten, Fiber, etc..and yes BEING THIN IS WORTH IT, AND I WILL FIND A SOLUTION.

FINALLY, I THINK I HAVE SAID IN MOST OF THE POSTS THIS IS NOT MY ADVICE, IT'S MY EXPERIENCE. And with that, BLAH BLAH BLAH FANNIE AND JACHUT....really.

LOL! Of all the things I might "judge" you for, this is the one that's most likely to get me on my soap box!! Who needs a man to get what you want in life? Did our mother's burn their bras for nothing? ARGH!

Yes, a VERY RICH MAN!

I just have to say something. R U SERIOUS. There are thousands of threads on this site. If the "newbies" or you cant dissifer what information is good for them and disgard what they feel in inappropriate then all I can say is "WHATEVER". This is hilarious. This is someones experience. who are you to question me/us. We are having an open and candid conversation. If you dont like what we are saying them move to the next thread. And by the way. Let me come across a man with money. It will be completely on. Plastic surgery for everyone. Its not that I cant provide for self but why should I if someone else will. That would be the least he could do. Id rather take my money and shop.

LOL, that's my girl! Seriously, the self-righteous BS is rather hilarious. Better we should say nothing, because this isn't intended to be a SUPPORT outlet or anything. Everyone has different things they need supported. It's so obnoxious to be judged on here, and if people are that dumb that they can't think outside of the box or what comes out of their doctor's mouth, or that dumb that they do stupid, reckless and harmful things to themselves based on what someone says on a message board, then I don't know, they have way more serious problems than us! Thanks, Kee. It's like, this is what I did, this is how I did it, this is the result, this is the down side, this is the up side. The down side sucks and I need help resolving it, but the up side is so much better! And I can't afford plastic surgery right now, AND I'm single, so yeah, if there's something wrong with setting my sights on a man with some money in his pocket as opposed to one without, um...I dunno, this seems like a nobrainer. I guess I'm a reckless, superficial, thin-obsessed, alarming, in-dire-trouble, HOT, THIN, SEXY, SINGLE BANDSTER? Works for me. :thumbup:

Just out of curiosity, does your doctor support your method? Does he know what kind of food you can eat/not eat and agree it is appropriate?

We have all seen how different our surgeons are, is this yet another different technique for medically supervised weight loss?

I'm guessing he knows, since he's the one who gets all my emails when I have a flare up, he also did the fills, the unfills. And let's break apart what I can eat. I had a bowl of honey bunches of oats for Breakfast and a slice of eggplant parm for dinner. Doesnt' sound so bad. The only things I can't eat are grains like brown rice and bulky vegetables which I hate anyway and fruit. And I get the Vitamins through supplements. So, let's see, tuna salad, protein-check. smoked salmon and cream cheese-Protein, check. nachos...guacamole, avocado, Omega 3's-check, cheese, pinto Beans, protein-check, sour cream, yum- check. If I could still eat a turkey sandwich, i could still eat a slice of pizza, and i can't do either...doesn't mean i'm not eating healthy, i'm just not eating low fat high fiber. AND, considering I have nutritional blood work done regularly and NONE of my vitamins are deficient except for folic acid, which I am supplementing, what's the problem? Just because it's not "text book" food doesn't mean it's bad. And the reality is there are days the band is bitchy and all you can get down is something like ice cream. At least it's calories. It doesn't sound right, but this is the reality. The ice cream takes far less of a toll on my body than chicken broth which is LOADED with sodium.

AND so many of the "judges" in here lost like 100 lbs in their first year, it took me 3, so, what's healthier? We coudl go back and forth for days, and that never was the intention here. But hey, I'm just getting warmed up. Bring it!