I had a revelation last night. I am 9 days pre op and I had kept reading prior to my surgery that the band is a tool. It's not a magic cure all. Now I understand what that means.

I've lost 26 lbs since I started the pre surgery liquid diet. And for a few days after the surgery I was doing great. Now the swelling has gone down and I can eat pretty well. The scale hasn't budged in two days.

What does it mean? It means nothing in the big picture, I shouldn't be weighing daily anyway, but it reminded me of something.

After alot of reading here I think I had started falling into the lap band trap.

"Boy, it will be great when I get a couple of fills and the band starts doing it's thing and I start loosing weight."

Hold on, I don't have to wait around for fills for this thing to start working. I can go dust off the elliptical machine today and do a light work out and start working the tool. The tool is me. The aid is the band. Ah yes, I knew I wasn't going to be able to hide from this thing called weight loss.

We still have our parts play. We still have to buck up and face this monster.

:angry :angry :angry BRING IT ON!:angry :angry :angry

Exactly. The band is there to help IF we put ourselves in motion.

Good luck to you.

You are singing my song, sister! I get a little frustrated when I read someone post, "Why am I not losing weight yet?" before they have restriction. Invariably, several people respond that the first six weeks or so after surgery are for "healing", and that no weight loss should be expected. I say that's just baloney. It *is* true that you may have little help from the band at the point. But, you can lose weight the "old fashioned" way by restricting your calorie intake and moving your body. And, about the time your motivation starts flagging, you'll start getting fills and have restriction to help you continue.

Getting the band was a huge "trigger" for me, that put me into weight-loss mode mentally. I was ready to make some serious changes in how and what I eat, and I've pretty much consistently lost weight. So, don't buy into the idea that you won't lose weight until you get adequate restriction. Because what you believe is often what you get!

Go for it!

Tami

Just be careful not to move too much post-op. There will be limitations on exercise. It really is a time for healing, eat right and most likely you will lose some weight, but I was told nothing more than walking for 6 weeks post-op. ~Mandy

Tami is absolutly right. I lost more on the pre op diet than post op (3 weeks post op now), but I still am losing thanks to the losing mentality getting the band put me in.

I'm so glad you had this revelation - you will be one of the happy customers!

I've NEVER found good restriction in the sense that others have talked about it. I can still eat every single food I choose to. But I've attacked this thing from head on, eating everything in moderation and exercised my butt off. I'm nearly at my goal weight.

I could probably use a tad more restriction to get to goal but I feel like I've come this far, I can do the rest. And I feel like I've done a good part of the work, changed some bad habits which, whilst I've got my band to help me maintain may not seem so important but it does give me some reassurance that if something were to go wrong in future, I've got a different outlook and lifestyle than what I had.

We still have our parts play. We still have to buck up and face this monster.

Ah yes! Congratulations!! THIS is a veddy good sign of a very successful bandster.

Go on with your strong self!!!!