I am so happy I found this forum and one other. So many questions I had about the sleeve were answered on the forums. So much information was proffered.

I just got back from my surgery and I went from San Diego to Mexicali with one group and back to San Diego with another.

They people I rode with all had the lapband. I'm not disputing their choice. It was their choice. But none of them had even heard of the sleeve. It made me wonder what research they had done except for listening to the t.v. commercials which makes the lapband sound like a miracle cure.

The other thing they did not seem educated on was the post-op diet changes they were going to have to make.

In the pre-op conference with the doctor one man asked how soon he could start drinking his energy drinks again. Aren't those high carb?

In the ride back three folks had the band and the topic of conversation was how they could not wait to get to the mushie stage so they could eat their mashed potatoes again. As much as I love mashed potatoes, they are not at the top of my list when I want to lose this weight. I'm looking forward to high Protein, low carb like tuna or the like.

So this just made me wonder if they had really prepared themselves for the lifestyle changes they were going to have to make to reach their goals.

Once again, thank you all for sharing your wealth of information with me. I know what I have to do to get where I want to be.

I think what everyone says about the banders having a different mindset is so true.

My friend was banded and when she found out I was being sleeved the first thing she said to me was, you know its not reversable? Of course I know that, why would I want it to be reversable. This is what I want forever, not some quick fix.

I think what everyone says about the banders having a different mindset is so true.

My friend was banded and when she found out I was being sleeved the first thing she said to me was, you know its not reversable? Of course I know that, why would I want it to be reversable. This is what I want forever, not some quick fix.

You bring up a good point. I think many banded folks think banding is a quick fix. They just don't realize it is anything but a fix. It's temporary so it's a good thing bands are reversible. I would shoot myself if I was forced to live like that for the rest of my life.

Eventually scar tissue grows under the band and the person ends up with far more restriction than they want even with an unfilled band.

There was a doc on the band boards a couple of months ago that wrote of a conversation he had with a sister company of Inamed. Even they are predicting the band will be obsolete in the near future.

I was amazed - in the "group nutritional meeting" that they did at my surgeon's office, there were people in there that were all "what about Pasta? when can I start eating that again?"

The nutritionist was like "you really shouldn't eat that - it doesn't contain Protein or really any nutrients"

Next person: "Well I like to have bagels with butter - how soon can I eat those after surgery?"

The nutritionist again says "well that's not really a wise choice after surgery due to the lack of protein and nutrients again"

Next person says: "So when I'm on soft foods, I can have ice cream and shakes from McDonalds, right?"

Nutritionist: *blink*blinK*

Me: *thunk**head hits table*

Yep, that is what I was seeing. I really think people don't take the time to study up on nutrition and have no concept of the nutritional value of each food. So many people cannot read and understand how to read a label.

Yep, that is what I was seeing. I really think people don't take the time to study up on nutrition and have no concept of the nutritional value of each food. So many people cannot read and understand how to read a label.

Which I totally don't understand because these people obviously had been on diets before and every diet involves reading labels...WW you have to know calories and fat; Atkins - Protein and carbs, no sugar/no flour - ingredients, calories ... so how did they get through the dieting process without at least absorbing SOMETHING?

Do you know what drives me nuts? The people who have this surgery and have a chip on their shoulder.

"I didn't have this surgery to be on a diet" people. There is a woman on the other board who is just a couple of weeks out and not due to go on mushies until tomorrow and she is posting about how she cheated with a few bites of CAKE and had colby jack cheese (which isn't even mushies.) and she is one of those who has the chip.

She wasn't understanding that the harsh responses were to try to get into her head that at this point she was risking problems.

We all chose VSG because some day we want to go back to "normal", or a refined normal with our eating, but damn, don't risk problems when we are only talking 30 days. Grrr!

Don't you know she will be back at six months wondering why she hasn't lost weight and about how unhappy she is with the surgery.

I try not to be rude to people online, but I'm afraid I was pretty blunt with that one.

I understand the philosophy of wanting to figure out how to eat for a lifetime and not go through a period of big deprivation to lose weight faster. I don't necessarily agree with that approach (as I think it has some pitfalls including risking not getting to goal and not giving your body a chance to develop healthier preferences), but I do think a good way to lose weight if you haven't had WLS is to figure out what your maintenance calories would be at the weight you want to be and just starting eating them.

But that isn't really what these people are doing. Instead, they are so attached to food that they can't imagine a life without high calorie junk on a regular basis. As I said to that woman: what thin person would eat birthday cake two weeks out from major abdominal surgery when her doctor told her she could risk blowing out her staple line and possible death? Only someone overly attached to food tries to justify such immensely self-destructive behavior.

These are the people I was talking about before in the addiction thread who really are addicted to food and are either going to sabotage their weight loss or develop a cross addiction if they don't deal with it.

Yes, you are right. They have an addiciton. She was not in the proper mental place for the surgery. You have to make decisions BEFORE the surgery that this is going to be a lifetime change. Even when you are on a full foods stage, you can't be eating malts, cake and chips and expect to see positive results.

Right - I think that I was the only one that doesn't have to go back to see the nutritionist for approval before having surgery again.

"like putting cheap gas in a Ferrari!"

Lol! What a great way of looking at it! I will remember that.

Mac have you seen the one who is back? She is a couple of weeks out. Last post she was talking about eating french fries. Now she ate a SLICE of pizza, less than three weeks from surgery. This is the second WLS for her. The lapband failed her. You think? If she wanted to continue to eat crap, she should have had a bypass. Instead she is risking her life with her antics.

They make 0 cal, 0 carb energy drinks. Not that they're exactly a great nutritious choice anyway. lol

Thanks for that info because I am an energy drink drinker!

Many of the energy drinks contain large amounts of caffeine. Read labels.

Does everyone drink real coffee. I have been trying the caffeine free for 4 weeks and can not learn to like it.

In my program, we aren't supposed to drink caffeinated drinks until we can regularly drink 64 oz. of uncaffeinated drinks. And anything with caffeine in it doesn't count towards our daily Fluid intake.

I don't like coffee so I don't drink it. I drink decaf tea and Water and sometimes those low-carb flavored drinks like Fuze Slenderize and Sobe Lean.