How many times have we heard this? How many times have we questioned ourselves if we are taking the easy way out? Especially before being banded.

Just my humble opinion here so take it for what it is worth.

Being banded is very hard and I know a lot of thin people that could not tolerate being banded. They could never hack the surgery, possibly surgery in another country, life changes, the lack of specific daily foods such as bread, etc. Maybe even no wedding cake at their own wedding?

When I used to go on a low fat, low carb, low flavor diet after a few weeks I could not pass up a juicy cheeseburger. THAT is the kind of hard I can't do. Being banded, that is the kind of hard I CAN do.

Perhaps if we try to explain it to the non-banded of the world who seem to save up all their uneducated comments to throw at you when you are at your lowest, maybe we can teach them something.

Being banded is the kind of hard we CAN do!

It bothers me so much when people say this. I tell them that its not easy way out its help.

Then I tell them that when Im on a diet I can easily change my mind for a day and eat big mac and fries plus shake and icecream.But once I have the band I cant do it,its not beacuse that I have a good restriction(if I didnt watch my food I coould easily eat like before) but because its real risk to overeat, your pouch can just pop and you are dead in 15minutes cause of the acids that are in your stoma. Or you can cause erosion and other complications.Once you have the band you just cant change your mind that easily!and thats what helps me:-)

I don't think it's the easy way out either, but honestly, who cares if it is? The goal is to lose weight and keep it off to live a longer, healthier, and happier life. That's all that matters to me. None of my thin friends could deal with what I've been through. It's just ridiculous to even answer a comment like that......blows my mind how idiotic people are.

Gretchen

banded 2/23/07

Great post! I honestly have not encountered that reaction from anyone. Maybe because I didnt tell anyone until I had already lost about 40lbs...or maybe it was said, just not to my face. The closest anyone has come to making a negative thing about my banding was one (overweight) teacher I work with that asked what I was doing to lose so much weight. I told her I had the Lapband and she looked crushed and said, "Oh, I thought you were doing it on your own". But really, I think she wanted me to tell her some magical quick fix solution I had found....like I am taking this pill, or only eating XXX, a spoonful of applecider vinegar before meals, or something like that. The funny thing for me is that this has been a magical solution for me. I could never lose more than 20 lbs before banding, because I couldnt stick with the diets.