hi

new thread for a new month with a new challenges :clap2:

what is your goals for this month

my goal is to exercise 13 times & drop off 15 lb :bandit

Happy Birthday Bandiva!!!

Hello my fellow December Bandsters! I'm sorry I lost this thread - I check in to the steady loser thread everyday and when I've tried to find an April thread I must have missed it. Anyhoo.. it sounds like everyone is doing great and meeting their goals.

Ibreham you sound great! I had my 4th fill 3 weeks ago and its been going great. I still have a hard time getting the rules down. I have to remember to eat real solid food or it doesn't last as long, absolutely no drinking before or after I eat - and of course chewing and slowly eating.

I think my goal for April was 10 lbs - and I have about 4 more pounds to go. Keep up the good work and I hope to check in more often .. now that I've finally found you.

Happy Birthday!

I found that there are two December banster threads. One says December in April, and the other says December bandsters. Where are we supposed to be posting?

I am eating right and not losing. I am hoping to see something gone soon. These plateaus are so frustrating.

The December bandsters one was the original thread and it got HUGE. So, we've been posting in monthly threads - if you look, there's likely a December Bandsters in January, and I know there's one for Feb and March.

This is the right one!

I posted in your other thread about slow losing - I really hope you can get things sorted out!

Oh - Happy Birthday Bandiva!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The December bandsters one was the original thread and it got HUGE. So, we've been posting in monthly threads - if you look, there's likely a December Bandsters in January, and I know there's one for Feb and March.

This is the right one!

I posted in your other thread about slow losing - I really hope you can get things sorted out!

Thanks for trying to help me. This board is a life saver. I am hungry in the evenings. I eat dinner ususally around 5 and I am hungry by 8-9.

I am really afraid to get another fill. I get stuck pretty often. I have been learning to cut my food smaller and that's helping. The problem is, I don't know how much or how little I am supposed to eat. They say restriction and I don't know what that means. The first couple days after my fill, I did.

I ate a salad, and I was so stuffed I was uncomfortable. It was a small salad. Then they said it's because there is swelling after a fill.

You have 2.3 in there? I have 2.0. Maybe I do need a tiny bit more.

I'm up to 2.7 now - it was "too much" for me back in March and I went down to 2.5, then a month later, 2.7 was perfect - now I've scheduled my next fill for May 7th, just in case.

Restriction to me is the ability to eat a small portion (3 oz meat/1/2 cup produce), and feel satisfied (not necessarily "full") and not get hungry for ~4 hours. But I notice my morning Breakfast, since it's yogurt & bran Cereal, doesn't stick with me as long - and I don't expect it to, it's almost a "mushy". If I eat 3 oz meat with a veggie, I stay satisfied much, much longer.

Personally, I'd say go in and get .1 or .2 and see how it goes - you do have restriction, so you really don't need a lot. I do liquids/mushies for 24 or 48 hours after a fill (basically my doc just says "take it easy for a day"). The closer I get to my "sweet spot" the more cautious I am after a fill. I'm pretty much right at my sweet spot so I do things like yogurt, milk, Protein shakes and cottage cheese for 2 days and then re-introduce things slowly.

Have you tried shaking your "menu" up? Any chance your difficulties in eating are caused by "trouble foods" that would clog any of us up? Sometimes that's all my "golf ball" feeling is - eating something that could be trouble for anyone with restriction! For example, until my last fill or so I ate the little baby raw carrots. My one and only "sliming" incident was with those darn carrots about two weeks after a fresh fill, and I just won't eat them again! Not worth the pain..

I wish I had free fills for a year, but I don't . I have 3 free. He had me filled<br /> to 2.5 and I was scard because the water felt like it was just sitting there. <br /> He could tell I was scared and took part of it out. NOw I regret it. I think the reason I was having meat stick was I wasn't cutting it small enough. I thought if I chewed and chewed til it was goo, that was enough. Now I cut meat really tiny and still chew like crazy and I haven't been sticking the last two days. <br /> <br /> My car is broke down and I am going to a bigger town to get a car. As soon as I have it, I am going to buy a food scale. It's hard to guess the calories on a slice of turkey meatloaf, when I can't weigh it. I wouldn't think it would be more than 3 oz though.<br /> <br /> I went to your profile and you live in the Pacific NW like me. I live on the OR coast.

Yeah, I've noticed solid meats are the easiest for me to "eat to fast and feel the golf ball" on. Good you're taking the smaller bites - that helps me A LOT!

And yes, I'm up in the Seattle area - beautiful day up here today - I can't wait for summer!!

I just got a fill on Monday up to 2.2 cc and WHOA momma- I have restriction! I was thinking I was gonna need an unfill but now 5 days later I am doing better. Its hard b/c I get that golf ball after a bite or 2 but I am still hungry- stomach growling and all. If I stop eating the golf ball passes and I am still hungry. So I usually wait 15 min then I can eat a little more, and I eat until I am not hungry but I am certainly not full. The only problem is I am hungry sooner than 3-4 hours. I am ususally hungry in 2 hours. I wish I could get it to last longer. I was like that pre band too. Once my endocrinologist told me that people with diabetes and pre diabetes empty food out of the stomach sooner than the average person. (unless they get a condition called gastroparesis which occurs as a late complication of diabetes)

I wonder if it is contributing to why I am hungry so soon after eating.

Jill, I had that same problem when I first got my fill. It made me really afraid to get another fill. Are you cutting your food into teeny tiny pieces and chewing until it's liquid? That's what I have to do. It's a pain , but so is that golf ball feeling. I really HATE that. I am able to eat enough to stay full longer now that I do that.

I was banded 12/19 and have lost 37 pounds. I always thought - before I got the band - that you eat a little, it stays in your pouch and feeds your stomach slowly. This may be true but I find it feels so uncomfortable while food is in the pouch. Like an ache. I feel so relieved when it's all gone down. Does anyone feel that way? I thought it would be a comfy satisfied feeling but it's not so comfy. Or maybe it's just those initial bites because after 10-15 minutes the ache goes away and i can eat a little more... So weird. I find too that the scale stays pretty much the same for about a week and then all of a sudden drops 2-3 lbs. Overall,I'm happy with the weight loss. It feels so good adjusting to each stage. I can wear some pants for a while and then they get so loose, so i move on to the next smaller size and they start to get loose. Love that!

I was banded 12/19 and have lost 37 pounds. I always thought - before I got the band - that you eat a little, it stays in your pouch and feeds your stomach slowly. This may be true but I find it feels so uncomfortable while food is in the pouch. Like an ache. I feel so relieved when it's all gone down. Does anyone feel that way? ...

A big ditto here. It doesn't feel better until my pouch is empty.

What do all of you do for exercise?

An absolute minimum of an hour daily on my treadmill. Once I get a mile of jogging and a mile of power walking I take the rest of the hour and do whatever I feel like. Incline, slower walking, more jogging, whatever I want.

hello i'm new to this and i just wanted 2 talk with some people that has had the lapband i had mine on march 30.:nervous Its benn 4 weeks and i'm really starting to pick my appetite back up but i've been living on refried beans. but i have lost 25 lbs :clap2: . Is that about right oh yea and i'm a little nervous about getting the band filled can someone please tell me what it is like

I've been reading and rereading this thread to see if others have similar "issues" to my own. My brain is soooo confused right now.

On an intellectual level I know I am losing weight and I am happy with the results thus far. My fat bubble butt fits in places it didn't used to fit. My clothes .... oh, my clothes. My friends tell me to quit wearing baggy clothes. Well, whatever I am wearing wasn't baggy three weeks ago. I was looking at my ticker today and for the first time this is all totally something I can manage. Reaching the half way point was not good, it didn't feel like I had done anything. Being in onederland...blahhh. Being 189... (sigh). But suddenly 187 ... that number looks different to me. Suddenly I feel there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.

While the numbers look good, I look at my body and no matter how much weight I lose I look and I can find at least another 100lbs to lose. I know that isn't realistic, I get that. But it is still what I see.

My BMI is 31.2. I should be happy, it used to be 41. But I'm not happy, not at all.

My doc told me that when considering a goal weight to keep in mind that some fat will likely be removed during a tummy tuck. Okay, with lipo and flab removal, let's say 10lbs. My goal is 150, remove 10lbs w/surgery for 140, and I still think I'm going to be fat at 5' 5". I really do. I can't honestly wrap my brain around the scenario of ever being normal sized. My sis and I are about the same height and bone structure. She said she weighs 140. Okay, so that *really* means she weighs 145. I can see where she could lose 5lbs or so. I compare myself to her, I should look similar. But I won't. I have wayyyyyy too much fat.

Would you guys do me a favor? Would a couple of you try something and see if you have the same weight loss weird stuff I do?

Sit on the edge of a chair. Sit so that the fat on your thighs hangs freely.

Do you have dents where fat used to be? I'm talking BIG dents. I have one huge dent on the inside of each thigh closer to my knees. I could almost put my fist in there. Gahhh Does anyone else? Did anyone else and it all evened out one day?