I'm getting ready for my lap band surgery this thursday...have that butterfly in stomach feeling I haven't had in years. Still thinking about how I got here (6'5" 400lbs.) I've been reading all the blog posts on here, and have learned so much. Here's my question: what are the three things I must do in order for this to succeed?

Be positive, eat slowly, drink water!

Best of luck on your surgery day! Let us know how it goes.

Jim, best of luck with your surgery! You trust your surgeon and his team, so you'll be fine. Let them be the professionals they are. When it's done, you'll be even more relieved.

Three things to do for best success:

1. Allow your system time to heal before launching into major diet/activity and concerns about how much weight you've lost. After healing, your system will be ready for the next step. Don't rush it.

2. Listen to your nutritionist about proper eating habits, but don't be afraid to adjust things to suit your particular system. I found the restrictions my NUT gave were too little for me, and my system went into a major plateau for several weeks. I felt it was due to the "starvation mode" thing of not enough calories, so I gradually increased mine. When I hit 1200-1500 calories a day with normal activity, the weight started falling off. It's been a steady loss ever since.

3. Get up and move. When we were younger and thinner, we moved around as a natural course of life. After we got older and put on some pounds, life slowed down for us. If you expect the band to do all the work, you'll have some success, but not enough. If you get up and move, work out, burn extra calories through physical activity and help your band do its job, you'll lose more weight, your body will more easily adapt back to it's earlier form, and you'll feel a whole lot better about all the effort you're putting into things.

Good luck!

Dave

I'm getting ready for my lap band surgery this thursday...have that butterfly in stomach feeling I haven't had in years. Still thinking about how I got here (6'5" 400lbs.) I've been reading all the blog posts on here, and have learned so much. Here's my question: what are the three things I must do in order for this to succeed?

HOW ARE U FEELING ABOUT IT I GO TO MY CONSULTATION ON APRIL 15 4 DAYS BEFORE MY 50TH BIRTHDAY I HEAR THE DIET WEEK BEFORE SUGERY SUCKS I DO WISH U ALL THE LUCK AND LET ME KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE IM EXCITED FOR U LISA

I'm newly banded, but these are my top three:

1. Let yourself heal after the procedure.

2. Stay hydrated.

3. Listen to your band!

Starting pre-op diet tomorrow...liquid for one day , clear on wednesday. Getting ready and did my shopping for post op diet today...hard to get my head around the small amount of food intake. Is it that tough on first two weeks?

Be positive. Don't get frustrated enought to quit if your weight loss slows down and try to use protein supplements on the liquid & soft phases especially. I couldn't have gotten through it without my weightloss supplements. ...and remember to get in exercise.