This has been discussed into the ground, but I want final clarification as to when we should stop drinking liquid before eating.

My doc said stop drinking liquids 1/2 hour before eating, which I've always done (and if memory serves me well, that's how we do it on this board??) However, after reading on the other board that people drink right up until they take their first bite, I'd like some feedback. Their theory is that liquid passes right through to the bottom stomach, so it helps make the bottom stomach feel full. They don't feel it's necessary to wait 1/2 hour to eat. Then again, they're only eating 1.5 cups of food per day, and in my opinion anyone would shed weight no matter when liquid is consumed with that restricted intake.

Does anyone here (that doesn't follow strict caloric intake) have significant weight loss and success by drinking water right up until you start eating? It would sure make life easier.

I'm not sure what a frisson is, but it sounds like a good thing. You people use big words. I like that.

Dr. Carmen said not to drink Water with meals because:

1. There's not enough room in the pouch for food and liquid;

2. You'll stretch your pouch/stoma;

2. Liquid pushes the food through the stoma faster, so you're hungrier sooner.

Then again, Dr. Carmen promised emergency 24 hour phone service and said my infected port was normal.

Delarla: You are so bad. LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure what a frisson is, but it sounds like a good thing. You people use big words. I like that.

OMG! First belly laugh of the day for me!! LOL

Hi Kim, first time for me to see your face & name. Hi again!

I'm exactly like you - it takes an hour to feel completely full. I ate 4 hours ago and feel like I just downed a twelve-incher from Subway. I try to have a cup of warm herbal tea at night so the food goes down before bed. And I'm afraid to stretch my pouch, too, although I probably already have.

I'm eating a fraction of what I used to eat. I used to eat 2 man sized plates, then top the night off with 3 hours of goodies. Now I eat for about 20 minutes. I always know I need to stop, but I feel cheated cuz I barely ate anything. I'm guilty of eating about 4-5 small bites past the point where I feel fullness.. then again, I don't know the difference between fullness and other stuff. I had a hiatal hernia before my surgery, which meant my food always felt trapped in my sternum, inbetween my breasts only lower. Being full from the band feels similar - you don't get full in your belly, but in a new higher place (am I right?)

Originally posted by DeLarla

- you don't get full in your belly, but in a new higher place (am I right?)

Exactly! You will never feel that 'thanksgiving' full again, unless you are eating things that go around the band, like Desserts. The 'full' you feel is farther up, into the esophagus.

Very good!

Leatha

Then Leatha, I can explain to everyone what a hiatal hernia feels like. It feels like a lap band. Only it hurts. What's really strange about my funny little band is that even though I'm eating a few bites past being full, I've walked past a huge cannister of cookies for over a week. Someone brought them to work, and I haven't even smelled one. How can that be? And so far I've been able to avoid all candy. And I've only had 1/2 a french fry, which I spit out (2 cups of Ketchup with DaddyMackSize fries were a staple.) No candy in 2 months? Except the neighbor kids brought me a huge sucker from Disneyland. I've licked at it a few nights, but it's still over a foot long. And 2 Tic-Tacs. Oh, and I shared a dessert last month. Other than that, at least I have some of my long-lost willpower back... for today, anyway!

Congratulations!! To me, the best part of the band is not having that guilt of eating everything that isn't nailed down. At night, when I go to bed. I go to bed feeling so much better, not stuffed and miserable and guilty for what I'd eaten.

I know all too well about hiatal hernia's, too. Often, a band surgeon will fix them.

:Bunny

Leatha

When I woke up, I asked my band surgeon if he repaired my awful hernia. He said, "you don't have it any more." But his English suffers along with a bad lisp, so till this day, I don't understand what happened to it even tho Donali tried to explain it. She shoulda used baby talk like "he shoved that tube thingy down the floppy round part." But I think he just pushed it down then put the band on top of it to hold it down????? Just my guess.

You just reminded me of how sick I was every night... I'd be up 10 times taking antacids and eating chaulk, or just eating more crap to push down the stuff that wouldn't go down. Yes, I believe my band loves me a little!

I drink right up to my meal, during my meal, and after my meal..... bad girl, i know...... but I don't actually drink, I just sip... I may not get but half of a cup, (one like is in the bathroom to rinse your mouth) during the whole meal. To easc his own I say. It just makes me feel better to have a tiny sip. HOWEVER!!!!! I recently read something that is making me re-think and try harder not to drink much. I read that..... " If you drink during meals (banded or not) that the water dilutes the stomach acid that breaks down the food and the food will not be used by the body as well as it would have if you "did not" drink with your meal. Makes sense to me. I remember when I was younger and really dumb and had my first son. I fed him baby food from the jar and he would not eat it all so I put it in the fridge. When I would open it back up to feed the next time, it would not be solid as before, but gross and runny and I would have to throw it away. I was dipping the spoon back into the food after putting it in his mouth. Therefore the saliva from the spoon was going into the untouched food and breaking it down. If we drink with our meals, more food will "not" be broken down and used, and more will remain solid and turn to fat instead of being used by the body as fuel. Now if I am wrong, forgive me, but since I read this, I am trying harder to "not drink". Do as you wish. It is your journey. I did not drink with meals faithfully at first. Then I crept into the sipping thing. I have noticed lately that my food will go down more and I can eat more if I do sip. Good or bad to drink?..... I don't know...but I have lost 95 lbs. I have lost much slower than most also.

Oh yeah, by the way, I cannot eat lettuce at all.... but my daughter can...I love eggs, but she can't get them down..... go figure... we are all different.

Thanks, Terry. I didn't drink with meals before being banded because my gastroenterolgist suggested not to. I had major digestive problems before my band, and my doc agreed with your statement that stomach acids have an easier time breaking down food without all the water.

I don't drink for a couple hours after eating because if I do, I get hungry later. If I get really thirsty, I'll have a popsickle. I keep a tub of mixed pops in the freezer - 2 boxes of sugar free with one box regular. You never know what you'll get, so if you get a real one it's a nice treat.

Drinking before meals was my problem because I've been missing out on all the fun with my friends. We have lots of parties and barbeques. We'll drink for a few hours before cooking. Some days I sip Bloody Marys, others plain iced tea or water. But when everyone starts eating, I've been sitting there drooling while waiting for my 1/2 hour to pass. Then I end up eating alone later.

After reading all these posts, I'll drink till my first bite. That's a big load off my shoulders. Thanks all!

I didn't think that pic was really you because it looks like a young Ellen Barkin? Brittney? Who is that?

Go drink some water! I fill up 2 huge containers of Water in the morning. I have to finish 1 of them or I don't get lunch. That's my rule, and I gotta stick to it!

Now that I am as far out as I am, I realize that a lot of the stuff we try to do is not necessary. We put extra pressure on our selves because we are afraid that one more time, we will fail and if you girls are like me, that is too much to handle. But whether we drink, or don't drink, or when we do or don't do it..... will not make us fail. Water is the most important thing we can put in our body. It hydrates every organ we have, and helps flush the toxins out of them. It even gives our skin a more youthful appearance. So, DRINK... Anytime you want. However, When eating, try to sip instead of drink. That way you can do what everyone else is doing and not feel you have to be different. I have a tape that says, "The best exercise in the whole world is.................one you will do" Wow. How smart is that. So in my humble opinion, the best diet, or I hate that word so I will say "The best Way to eat and live" is one that you can do and be happy at it. Because if it is a struggle, I have found that I will not stay with it. It isn't something "I will do". I will for a while, and then I feel like I am not living or not getting to be normal. So I incorporate "diet" for a lack of a better word, with a non-diet world. Kinda like the mixed popscicle thing..... I really like that, by the way, and that way we get to lose weight, and still have a normal life. I freak out and eat 6 cookies, or real ice cream, cake or whatever. And I may do it for a week. Not Good ! But..........Then somebody will see me and say, Wow, Terry, you really have lost a lot of weight and I start realizing that the food I just binged on really wasn't as satifying as that one compliment was, or as satisfying as the blood work I just had that was awesome instead of being so bad they are worried about me. So, unfortunately, we are still going to do bad, but there will be something to shake us back into reality and say, You can have a cookie, but not a bag of them, or a piece of cake , but not 3 pieces. So this is beginning to sound like a lecture, so I will stop.

But just do what is comfortable for you......... And at some point, you may decide that the water at a meal is not that important after all and realize you can do whatever you really want to, one way or the other.:laugh

Terry -

AMEN!!! *clap clap clap clap*

Terry, you hit my nail directly on my head. What works for some, doesn't work for others. Other people are able to stick to counting calories or measuring their food. I've been on Weight Watchers too many times, and the last time I mentally cracked up. I was weighing my dinner and started crying. Hubby came to see what was wrong, and I was soon in full-blown hysterics, throwing the scale away. I sought counseling because I simply cannot weigh or measure any more - after 30 years of counting, figuring, analyzing labels, fretting, etc., I just lost my will to "diet" and I don't ever want it back. That's why I got the band.

Now that I'm banded, I actually crave healthy foods - gotta have chicken and tuna.. must have. Somehow the bad stuff isn't as hard to pass up (thanks, band!) If I decided to have a cookie, my old addiction might come right back and I'd eat the entire batch. Right now it works for me to avoid all those goodies except for special occasions. There's been a giant size tin of Cookies here for 2 weeks, but I walk right by them cause their store-bought. I'm not wasting my time on store bought crap when I know the cookie lady comes once a month with warm home baked ones! So I'll wait till then.

I was given a piece of birthday cake but for the first time noticed how sweet and greasy it was. I could have eaten it, but I just licked at the fork. I'm trying to learn how to think like a skinny person, like, "that's so gross because it's too sweet." It ain't easy, but I'm trying to learn it!

Well thanks ladies!