:help: Hi! everyone. After doing alot of research, I have finally made up my mind to go ahead and do this. I went for my consult last wed, didn't get to talk to the actual doc. just to his staff and this week I'm in the process of getting my tests completed. But I just wanted to know if someone could give me the real insights on this. I love to drink on the weekend and have a couple of smokes, is that okay. I know not right away, but eventually ?? I love me some miller lite, will I have to switch to wine ?? Can you still have some of the mexican foods, salsa, chips, corn tortillas, fajitas, rice, beans ?? Are the gas pains tolerable after surgery ?? Can you take something before you have surgery , so you don't have as much gas afterwards?? I know everyone's body is different and different things respond to it differently. HELP !!! :Banane40: By the way happy valentines to everyone !! :kiss2: :kiss2:

Hey! Welcome to LBT! Okay, Beer is carbonated, wine is better for the band but not good for weight loss. Empty liquid calories are not good, but you can work in a glass or two over the weekends and be fine, I'm sure.

Cigs are not healthy, but I indulge...not much but regularly...and so far it hasn't been a problem. It's not good for surgery and anesthesia, so noone here is gonna say "oh, just smoke away, you'll be fine!" LBT has it's fair share of ciggy-diggers.

I LOVE Mexican food and can eat it just fine banded. Now, rice in small quantities, mixed in with goopy other stuff. I substitute flour tortillas for Tostitos and it's fine. I can eat refrieds, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, chips, chicken fajita meat, cut small, juices from the fajitas, the cooked onions and bell peppers, well-chewed, all of it.

You have 2 gas discomforts post-surgery. One is the gas they use to blow up your abdomen. That settles with walking alot after surgery, heating pads on your shoulders and back. The other gas is in your bowels from having surgery, getting banded, messing with your stomach, constipation, although some get diarrhea, etc. Chewable Gas-X is helpful, and glycerin suppositories are handy. Time, sipping and walking are the great healers of the gas issues. Everyone gets it to some degree, and we all get through it somehow, so don't worry, just be prepared for it and it's alot less stressful when you know what's going on.

Does that help? Banded life is very normal to me now. I'm not missing anything but large quantities of food and a good bit of excess weight.

Happy banding!!!

I think its down to the individual what you can get away with and what you cant.

Drinking and smoking, well the band wont stop you doing that. As to foods, well you may tolerate all those, you may tolerate them for a while till your filled or you may not tolerate them at all.

But I've found that all those sorts of things that I was worried about have been way easier to let go of than I ever imagined they would be.

I don't smoke, but I'm sure several of the people here do, so I can't answer your question on that.

As far as the carbonated alcohol. I haven't had a beer in about a year because I have a young daughter, I used to drink Guinness Draft!! Talk about a meal in a pint! I can drink small amounts of soda, but I have to sip it over several hours and no gulping or you will hurt.

For some reason chips and salsa go down well. I haven't tried flour tortillas but I read they weren't too band friendly and I prefer corn. I can eat a little refried Beans, but they tend to get stuck so I try not to eat much of them, same way with queso.

I have found (and you maybe different) that I can have a bite or two of anything I want as long as I know when to stop. I usually either throw it away or give it to someone to keep me from eating it and getting sick.

There is a lifestyle change involved. Not trying to preach I love beer too, but alcohol in general is full of empty calories and kinda defeats the purpose if consumed too often.

Best of luck to ya!

Not much to add, as the other posters did a good job. Just remember it is a tool and if you drink too many empty calories, you will gain or not lose. Remember: calories in and calories out

Once you are over your recovery period and have a fill, you will eat noticeably less. However, for alot of us junk food goes down quite easy.

Eating your Protein first is a rule. Plus, it doesn't leave much room for the junk.

Shawn

Thanks all for your reply. That info was very helpful to me. I just can't wait to get my tests completed and get an answer from the insurance. Hopefully it won't be too long before I am also too a bandster, lol.....

Hi, I haven't had a beer, a slurpee (something that really meant a lot to me), VOS, Pelligrino, Perrier, diet coke, rootbeer, sprite, tab, or any other carbonated anything, since I was banded 9 months ago in May. At first, I thought it would be horrible. You know what? I don't miss it. Not at all. And for me, its so hard to stay around a 1200 - 1500 calorie diet (as compared to perhaps the 4,000 to 6,000 calories I used to consume) that I'm not about to waste my calories on liquids which, ultimately have little or no real nutrional value.

Conclusion - It's weird not to have a beer. Particularly not to have a Kirin or Sapporo with my sushi. Actually, I can't even have sushi anymore, due to the rice getting stuck. But I can now eat two small orders of sashimi, come in under 200 calories, get all of that heart-healthy Omega three fatty acide, actually taste the food, be so full that I am sated for many hours, and continue losing weight.

Is giving up a beer really that important, as compared to staying on the downward spiral of wrecking your life by drowning in fat? By giving up the beer and sweet carbonated drinks, it makes room for things that are better for you. Like life-giving green tea, calcium-containing milk and clear, pure, Water.

It feels so much better to have at least this part of my life under control.

Good luck to you!

Brad

Hey Chica, I have my beer and mexican food still. Just not as much and as often!