As I consider all aspects I wonder if those of you who are moms and wives can share you experience as a family with one member banded.

My husband cooks the meals in our home and we eat dinner together every night. (We are not the Cleavers, but its the one of the few emotionally healthy things we do every night).

How have you and your families adjusted to this change in your eating??

Meal times have been one of the easiest adjustments to being banded. It was hard at first when I was on the liquid phase, but, I still participated in family meals with whatever I happend to be drinking.

I eat what my family eats, just smaller portions. Since I eat much slower than before, I don't finish before everyone else.

The only challenging part was to time my eating/snacks so that I was actually hungry at meal times. Once I had this figured out, it was easy! I don't usually eat if I am not hungry so, occasionally, I will sit down and drink Water while my family eats but that is fairly rare and since I am not hungry, it is not a big deal. I just make up a plate for myself to eat later when I am hungry.

My husband was overweight too when I was banded. We threw ourselves into the new lifestyle, and eating habits, and it has been really easy for us (DH ended up losing 30kg/ 66lbs).

We always went out of our way to feed our son good healthy food, so there was no real change for him.

We too eat our dinners together. dinner time is particuarly hard for my husband because he doesn't understand my eating so little. He absolutely hates it. He understands but then he doesn't understand. I've taken to preparing the foods on regular size plates to fool him. It doesn't really work but it helps.

I take this time to be the one doing all of the talking, getting the condiments etc.

The down side is my husband is the one who brings in all of the junk food. He always has something in the house. To him I should just ignore it, but it is diffiult becuase I much prefer to eat junk than to cook. I don't enjoy cooking. I try not to get too hungry when in the house becuase then I'll have some of his junk food. Fortunately, I don't eat nearly as much as I used to but still I'll have it.

Actually, for me it is going very well, as my hubby and kids are my greatest supporters. I basically cook the same foods as I always have (we have never made fried foods, we mostly grill everything), I just eat less of it. I cannot eat bread, but I still make it for them. They eat larger quantities than I do, but we still sit down at the table and I finish at the same time as them because I eat very slow now.

It's going really well here. My DH cooks the main course for our meals as well but, instead of grilling two steaks he grills one and we share it. My DS's diet hasn't really changed much. DH has lost 35 pounds by watching what he eats which he says is easier to do because of how I'm eating now. So we got two people losing weight for the price of one band lol. My DS and DH are very supportive, my DS just feels bad when he sees that blank look on my face when I know I've pushed it or I'm stuck. He just says eat slower mom or take your time mom lol. They're both so good to me and have been so supportive. Good luck!

They havent had to. I eat what I used to eat - I did eat a reasonable diet at mealtimes becuase I was feeding a family, it was what I put in my mouth between meals and the amount of food I ate as a whole that caused the problems.

I guess the family diet has improved even more though, but we still eat regular food. I did have a problem after my third fill with a piece of steak and have not tried anything like that again since, and the kids were complaining that we havent had lamb chops for a while, so I guess they're on the shopping list for this week.

And I think my hubby feels the lack of support for little evening pig outs. Krispy Kremes has just opened an outlet near here, the first one in Victoria, and its a bit of a novelty in Australia, the queue for the drive through is literally hundreds of cars long even five weeks later. Doug wanted to go down and buy a box last night and I said no thanks, lol.

Hi Littlebird,

My DH does the cooking for our family as well. The only real adjustment he's had to make was in the quantity of what he cooks. For a while we had a lot of leftovers until he learned that I no longer eat enough for three. He's moderated his intake as a result of seeing mine go down, as well. Our grocery budget has gone a lot farther than it used to!

But I won't lie--it's hard to sit at the table and watch everyone else eating when I'm completely done so quickly. For a while I just got up and left the table. Now I can stay, but it is still hard not to nibble. Moving my plate completely away and putting a newspaper or magazine in front of me helps a lot, even if I don't read it.

You'll develop your own tricks when you identify your challenges. But your family will not suffer at all because of your new eating habits.

We also share steaks and such at my house. There are 3 of us, me my hubby and my 5 year old daughter. When we go out to eat I get a meal and share with my daughter or I pick off everyones plate. I have also been known to order an appetizer for my meal. You will learn to make adaptations in you lifestyle and your family will adapt also. ~Mandy

Thank you for all the input! It's a huge help. I just applied and got approved for financing. That was the hurdle I was most worried about - so now it just comes down to getting scheduled. Thanks again for sharing everyone!

we all eat a seprate menu now. i have my slop lol my 5yr old had his food and my hubby has what ever he wants. we all usually eat at dif times of the day so im never out the kitchen. i make all food in the house. suits me if they wont have same as me lol !:heh:

Since I am still in the liquid stage, I can't make them eat what I am.

But I have already made some serious changes in their diet. They have had no junkfood, fast food ect. in 3 weeks now. Now my girls ask if things are healthy or not when we go to the store. They are trying hard to make good choices.

They ask all of the time "mommy when can you eat?" lol.... But they are being very supportive for me. DH is trying to adjust as well. He misses his junk food, but he will get over it!

:faint:

I worried about this also. The first month, being on liquids and mushies, I just did my own thing. If I wanted to sit with the family, I'd serve up my liquid/mushy.

Now, I just eat what I can with the family. Regular food and regular time. No special recipes.

Shawn