I haven't visited this site for a while now. Tomorrow is my 2 year anniversary of surgery. I have lost weight but no where near where I anticipated I'd be at this stage. I've been making bad food choices, not exercising enough and have gained weight over the summer. What is going to happen to me this winter if I keep this up? How do I go about starting over...Go back to a liquid diet for a few days? I do have good restriction...maybe even a little tight. Please do not beat me up - I'm very good at doing that myself. I really need encouragement and ideas to use this tool I have been given. Thanks...

Go see your doctor, track your calories and get back to exercising. You got this!!

Never to late to "reboot"

I just past six years banded and from a low of 190 in 2009 made my way back up to 250 last Christmas.

Most of the time that I was gaining I was too tight so slider foods and lots of ice cream shakes were the norm.

"Recommitted" myself on 1/1/13. Have re-lost about 45 lbs this year. The band has done its job at meal time my main problem was eating after 9:00 pm. So I need to make sure I go to bed before 9:00. Which means I get up earlier between 4 & 5 in the morning so I use this time to either walk or do resistance band training.

I also have had to limit the number of bad choices to the bare minimum. Such as putting extra butter on butter popcorn. Instead of eating the biggest snickers bar I can fine I settle for a little bite size snicker and take tiny bites and let the favor linger in my mouth as long as I can.

I have also increased my Water intake.

"For me" making more good choices than bad choices seems to work.

You can do it.

I would go back and see your doctor, You said you have restriction, so Maybe you can talk about why you think it didn't work the 1st time,, ( Stress, Family,Being board, etc) Then Track your calories, "my fitness pal" is an amazing asset I use almost everyday. It has restaurants and Fast food place calories listed.

You made the hardest step.. Deciding you need help, and came back.. the rest is gonna be easier.

-Debbi

I restarted in January '13 and have lost the last 50 lbs and am now at goal.

Things I did to restart were:

1) I come onto lbt frequently for support and to guide newbies. This gives me time to focus on the band instead of having to sit on the back burner being ignored. I learn new ideas and I refresh my memories of the rules (ie no drinking w/ meals, eat small bites, etc)

2) I wrote out a grocery list of band friendly foods and restocked my pantry accordingly. I also created 2 weeks of menus to eat after calculating the Protein and calorie content.

3) Make protein your priority. Min 60-80g of protein is required

4) Eat 3 meals, no Snacks

5) Do not eat more than 1 cup per meal

Put these back into practice and after 2 weeks in it'll become 2nd nature again. Good luck

I wish you luck. We all need a reboot once in a while

Your life is gonna be what you make it. Do what kick starts you. Go to a dr. Pay for a series of exercise classes. Go a vegetarian cooking class. Whatever helps YOU. No one else can really make those decisions for you. Happy you have the band already. Recommit to it?? Best of luck

Ps. Lots of us have veered off track Gotta get back on hopefully !

A Dr visit and a Nutritionist consult could do wonders to kick start the new you.