Hello Junbies ......

I haven't seen a June Band Crew thread yet so thought I would start it .

I'll be banded on June 9th in Texas. I'm getting very excited about it. I know that the band is just a "tool" to aid in my weight loss journey and it will take a lot of hard work on my part to make it successful. I've been overweight my whole life with the earliest memories being around age 4. Although no one else in my family is overweight, I am extremely fortunate to have full family support in my decision. I know that there are many people who's family doesn't offer the support they need. I would love to meet other pre-bandsters being banded in June to walk with me to the banded side of life and offer each other support.

I wish you all the best.

Melissa Lea :hippie:

Pre-bandster 240 lbs

June 9, 2006

Spivak

self-pay

Poodles--

It goes to show that this is much more a mental game.

Maybe your carb fix was a celebration--old habits die hard.

Way to go on an unsolicited compliment. I think I've gotten one since I was banded from DH.

Just a heads up guys... eating carbs while you have been off of them for a while will give you a horrible head ache... and you get hungry. I have been starving tonight, but I am full. Will definitely go back to low carb tomorrow. Don't know what in the world I was thinking.

May weigh tomorrow just to see what is up (or down). Maybe that will give me more motivation to not cheat.

I have also picked out a new "goal" outfit. I will buy it when I hit 250. I have not seen that number in 12 years.

Guess I have some head issues that I need to work through. It is a good thing my hubby noticed my butt getting smaller. (Means he still looks :love: )

Poodles--

Are you going totally no carb? Walmart has some good deals on lo carb hi protein bars. I take them in my purse.

Lo-carb will be my new weapon if the scale gets stuck again!

My low carb is usually under 50 carbs a day. I eat veggies and fruit, and drink soy milk. Those have carbs. My diet is usually a protein shake with soy milk in the morning, tofu/pureed veggies for lunch, and some ground meat (pork/chicken/etc) and veggies at night. My staples here lately has been home made chili (meat/tomatoes/chili packet/beans), my pureed veggie mix (squash/tofu/onion/cauliflower/garlic/butter), and flavored tofu.

I can eat the Zone bars, but some of the others get stuck.

Poodles I notice that everything is liquid or mushies. Are you not able to eat solid food at all? Sounds like you are getting in good foods and not high calories. The band is supposed to work with solids so I'm curious. I can eat just about anything. I chew, chew, chew. Not sure I'm losing right now, but I'll get a fill after next week and hopefully get some restriction.

This is something I will have to move in too slowly...I thought with the band that this meant you could eat anything good (except sweets of course) and lose weight. Reading all these eating agendas makes me think I am on a weight loss site for people who "diet" to lose their weight. I thought that's why we got the band? No more of those low carb diets and WW's or Nutra System or what ever I was on that only failed and I gained weight back as soon as I got off the thing. It almost pisses me off to think I have to go back on diets again. Things just never seem to be what there made out to be. Is it just me or do other people wonder what the $$$$ was spent for? Not to mention the horrible part of pbing if you don't eat very slowly or the discomfort of the fills and giving up dinner parties and going out to eat because of the embarrassment of eating so slow everyone else has finished an hour ago. I have never actually vomited but read of people that have horrible bouts of it. I am pretting lucky as far as some of the complications others have had that I read about. I do worry alot about them though. I had surgery on June 7th and I have had 4 fills 11cc band fill @ 6cc. Lost of weight 26 or 27 pds. Along way to go till I am finally at at a goal that pleases me.

This site is very wonderful for some information given here, but when I start to read about the dieting that we have to do AGAIN I just hope I can wrap my mind around that and except it.

Thanks for letting me vent, and good luck on the dieting.:faint: :hungry:

Carol,

I don't think most of us "diet". We are only supposed to be able to eat X amount once we have restriction. SOme of us don't have restriction yet, so we modify what we eat to fit a certain calorie amount. I am eating pretty much everything. I eat my protein first, then my vegetables. If I'm still hungry I eat my carbs. I just changed the order of my eating and slowed down. I go out to eat and yes I do eat slow. No one notices that I've only eaten a 1/3 of what they have.

Everyone approaches this a little different. I want to enjoy normal foods, but in smaller amounts. I don't want sweets to rule my life or great amounts of food. I don't want to think about this all the time. That's my goal.

Hang in there. Balance will come when restriction is reached. Making good choices will always be better than having all our intake in cake and cookies.

I have to agree with Carol. I really dislike that I can no longer eat breakfast. I have tried the tea, coffee and all that to loosen me up, but I can't eat in the morning and I've always been a breakfast eater-even if it was just yogurt and an apple. I also find it disheartening that I PB on certain healthy foods while "Bad" foods go down easily. Perhaps I ignored certain information in my research stage, but I also thought I could eat the same foods, just less. But there is so much more to it. Some foods we can never eat again, some foods get stuck, etc. That definitely isn't eating the same foods, just less of them. I know someone will reply and refute everything I just said, but that is my experience. I didn't go in thinking the band was magic, but it really is harder than the doctors and companies lead one to believe.

Barb, I think your experience with fluro is a common one. My Dr. does not use fluro and he says it's specifically because restriction does vary so much with most people from the time they do the fill to a few days later. A fill may look perfect on fluro and be perfect in the Dr.'s office and then later that day, the next day, or later that week, be too loose or too tight. He honestly says there is no advantage to fluro over just taking a sip of water to ensure you are not too tight to get fluids down easily. Great fluro in the office he says means nothing in terms of actual quality of the fill. In fact since most people loosen or tighten post fill, in fact most of the time they do, a perfect fluro doesn't equal a perfect fill.

With hair loss, hair loss caused by stress on the body, anasthesia, lack of protein or micro-nutrients happens 3-5 months after the precipitating events. It's because of the growth cycle of the hair. So if you are starting to experience hair loss now, it is in either response to the stress of surgery, or the anasthetic, or a lack of nutrients 3-5 months ago, not currently. Eating adequate protein, biotin, folate, etc, now - will help prevent hair loss in the future, but if you had a period of pre or post op diet that was low or deficient in protien or some vitamin/mineral for more than a few days may be in part responsible. Likely it's a combination of dietary stress and anasthetic stress on the body during that time period. It will normalize in time.

Some of us can't tolerate big fills. I am one of them. The fluro shows it going through just fine, but just wait 6-9 days. Also, they have done fluro when I couldn't drink but a few sips and it showed me wide open. Don't let the fluro fool you. If you need additional unfill then go get it. Once this situation gets out of control I think its hard to recover. I am now going to get only small fills like .2 or .3. If I have to pay more then so be it. The unfills and the days suffering are not worth it.

I am hesitant to admit that I've been losing hair. I am seeing more falling than I want to admit. My hair is short so it wouldn't take much to make me bald. :confused: Not sure why this happens as I'm eating my protein and drinking my water. My skin is also drier than normal, which is dry for me. My rosacea is acting up and sometimes I feel like I have hives. Its all the bodies way of telling us we are making changes.

I am trying very hard to keep the stress down. Sometimes I don't think we realize we are under stress until it comes out in other ways. Let's all take a step back next week and try to chill. We will hit it hard in October and see if we can shake things up. Do we have a plan?

Hang in there. We can do this. Some of us will be slower than others, but we will make it.

Just updating with me, I've been losing steadily - about 2.5lbs a week is my average it seems. I can't believe I'm almost down 60lbs. 42 of them since my banding date. My strategy which seems to work well for me has been consistent, I try to eat a healthy balanced diet, I focus on getting an average of 90 grams a day of protien from lean protien sources. About 30-35% of my diet is from protein, about 25% from healthy fats/oils, and the rest from healthy high fibre carbs, loads of fruits, vegetables, whole grains. I eat 3 meals a day, and I snack a lot. I drink a lot of water and other fluids - low cal fluids only. lots of fish, lean meat, low fat dairy for my proteins. I make sure I eat between 1000 and 1500 calories a day, and I average around 1200-1300. So even though I make sure I get a good amount of protein in daily between 70 and 130 grams, I'm definitely not on a high protein - low carb diet, just a natural balance. I find I need carbs for energy and to feel good mentally. The key for me is good carbs, not highly processed foods but whole fruits, whole veggies, and whole grains. I avoid white flour, sugar, refined starches, white rice and white potatoes. High fibre healthy carbs don't make me feel hungry, they fill me up as well as protein does. It's the refined stuff that causes rapid blood sugar changes signalling hunger, slow digesting high fibre low glycemic carbs are fantastic for curbing off hunger pangs. Excersize was good for a while, but has dropped off with my health problems (uterine fibroids - I'm pretty much couch bound until my surgery). Hasn't seem to have impacted the weight loss yet. Thankfully no hair loss, I only had two days day before and day of surgery where I had 0 protein though, and was very heavy on the protein pre and post surgery since healing tissue uses up extra protein. Thats it for me, no plans to make any changes to my routine till I'm healed from my next surgery when I can start to focus on exercise again.

Leila you are an inspiration to me. Thanks for the good information. I really appreciate it. I'm trying so hard to change and eat more balanced. I am able to eat more than I think I should. SInce I have had two bouts with overfills I can see where that would effect my protein intake. I'm not losing lots of hair, but I am losing. Makes sense that its a reaction to past behavior. I'll watch that as I move forward.

I have thought for a while that fluro fills was an overkill. Not that I don't mind having them that way. At least I know going home that everything is OK. The day I was so restricted and went in there the fluro showed I was getting things down. That's the day I was really confused. I began to think it was my esphogus or something in my throat. However, as soon as they took some out I was better. I mean really better. My throat stopped gurgling, the pain was gone. It was so instant. I knew then it didn't matter that the fluro showed everything was fine. It wasn't.

My experiences have been somewhat different, but not unusual. I am able to eat breakfast, eggs and bacon, cereal, yogurt, coffee, etc. I don't have trouble eating, no spit cups required, and no golf ball feelings. I only have restriction by my own fear and my own self control. It will be nice to have a fill that makes me stop, yet doesn't make me PB.

The future is uncertain, but I still love the band. I would not have gotten this far without it. I just need to find the right restriction, eat the right food, and enjoy. I'm going into the October challenge with the thought that its now time to put it all together - balance, water, and exercise.

Leila have they scheduled your surgery yet? I know it will be a relief to have the tumors out. I hope you are accepting the rest of what is happening. It is never easy, but your health is important. I had my hysterectomy at 30. I was so glad when it was all over as I had been sick for a year that I never thought of the loss of my female organs. Let us know how you are doing.

Keep it together Junebies. We are all different, having different experiences, yet bound by the sameness of the band. We can do this.

I have to agree with Carol. I really dislike that I can no longer eat breakfast. I have tried the tea, coffee and all that to loosen me up, but I can't eat in the morning and I've always been a breakfast eater-even if it was just yogurt and an apple. I also find it disheartening that I PB on certain healthy foods while "Bad" foods go down easily. Perhaps I ignored certain information in my research stage, but I also thought I could eat the same foods, just less. But there is so much more to it. Some foods we can never eat again, some foods get stuck, etc. That definitely isn't eating the same foods, just less of them. I know someone will reply and refute everything I just said, but that is my experience. I didn't go in thinking the band was magic, but it really is harder than the doctors and companies lead one to believe.

Socalgal I know what you mean by saying "refute"sometimes is seems like I'm just not getting it and cannot for the life of me figure out where the other side is? This is alot of guessing and confusing issues on this lap band and can only hope that one day it will finally come that I can say I am totally restricted and not pbing and giving up eating with others due to the embarrassment of being way to slow. And it is quite the guessing game as to how you will feel as far as restriction from one day to the next. I pray one day I will wake up and be doing just what I thought this lapband seem to offer. Other wise I can not believe insurance actually pays for something so uncertain as this. That's really what keeps my hopes up is the $ put out for this operation. I do eat like I am on a diet only I don't do as much as alot of these gals on this site, also I'm very active for a fat person, or a skinny one for that matter! I really envey the girls on this site that have no problems with doing the same things they were doing before lapband. Guess I'll jump on the wagon and try the dieting thing again.:faint:

Well I am down 5 more pounds. Which is good, but I want more!!! Figured it out and I have lost an average of 1.58 pounds a week. So guess I am average. :confused:

Have not done too great a job of getting back on my diet today, but think weekdays will be easier!

I had to go back and find the October challenge again. So it's 1200 calories, 64 oz of water and 30 min of exercise per day, is that correct?

Count me in. I have done little exercise so far but I've lost enough weight that I feel I can walk and move with more ease now. I seem to be losing only every second week. Perhaps this will keep things a bit more steady.

By the way, I found your pics while I was looking, Pinky. Way to go, you look fantastic.

That's right for the October challenge. Some of us are going to eat 4-6 meals instead of 3. We are trying to spread out our calories during the day and see if that helps with weight loss. My doctor recommends 3 meals a day and no Snacks. That doesn't seem to be working for me.

There's been lots of talk about dieting, restriction, mushies vs solids, etc. I am confused at the moment at to what I have with the band. Right now, I have no restriction. I say that only because I haven't tested it to its limits. I've come close I think, but I haven't felt the magic signal of fullness. I've gotten full, but after I've eaten more than I think I should. I also haven't been brave enough to try a few things I know cause others problems.

Saturday we had pizza. First time since banded. I ate the toppings off the pizza, but not the crust. I was too scared to try that. I think maybe I could have eaten it as nothing seems to bother me. So, I guess in theory I can eat anything as before being banded, just less. Well, maybe less as I haven't pushed it to see. Steak and baked potato last night. It was good. Didn't eat as much as before, but definitely had enough.

I think the October challenge will help me redirect my energies into positive actions. I am also going for a fill, a little itty bitty fill, so it will be interesting to see if I get restriction. I haven't lost since the unfill so I'm ready.

Hope everyone has a great week. Today and tomorrow at work, then off for a few days of fun. Can't wait.