I feel I have to be really honest and hopefully some of you will have some words of wisdom for me. I can't remember when I last lost a pound. In fact, I've gained three.

Although I had read before hand that the band is not magic, at first it seemed like it was. Fifty pounds melted off of me despite the fact that I basically wasn't following any of the band rules very often and was eating whatever I wanted. Well, the honeymoon's been over for months now and I've realized that those rules are there for a reason and that I can't continue to eat junk and continue to eat around the band if I want to lose more weight. But I've had a really rough time getting control of my eating and the really discouraging part is that I feel the same frustrations that I did pre-band. I really don't want to diet again because I feel that's part of what got me here in the first place, but I've about decided that dieting is what I have to do. Except I haven't been able to discipline myself to do it.

For the past week or so, I've been focusing on following the Omega-3 diet rules. It isn't a weight loss diet, it's more of a diet that is intended to improve cardiovascular health, blood glucose levels, and mood. This has come about because after going down post-banding, both my blood glucose and my cholesterol were slightly high again. I've been eating healthier since I started doing this diet and I feel better, but I still haven't lost any weight.

I've been in therapy for a year, so that is not the answer.

I've been exercising fairly regularly all along and have recently stepped up the amount. I try to ride my bike every day between 5 and 7 miles. Or else I walk about a mile or so. Wimpy, I know, but I am very faithful about it.

Restriction? It seems pretty good, I guess. I don't know, it's so hard to really know what the "sweet spot" is. I know that I am burping a lot and that sometimes I feel I need to burp, but can't.

I know that occasionally I'll have a slime experience. But it still seems that I can eat a pretty good amount of food. For example, for lunch just now, I ate about 1/4 cup of firm tofu and about 2 cups of a fresh cabbage and onion dish. And I did not feel anything at all from the band. Does that seem like a lot?

So there it is. I'm frustrated with myself and I feel like I'm in pre-bandlandia all over again.

Nancy

Hi, everyone. Since you all had such great support, advise, and comiseration, I thought I would update you. I'm still doing the Omega-3 diet. It is not a diet that restricts anything - not even the amount of food. It simply involves minimizing your consumtion of saturated and polyunsaturated fats while increasing the consumption of monosaturated fats such as fish oil, olive oil, canola oil, and flaxseeds. It does involve eliminating most processed foods because they are high in the bad fats. The goal of this diet is to improve cardiovascular health, mood, the immune system, etc.

Well, I've been focusing on this diet for about two weeks so far. I have not been perfect by any means - not even close! But the changes I've made have made me feel much better and more energetic. I still haven't lost a pound, but I'm hoping that as I get more practiced at this diet, weight loss will follow. We will see. At any rate, at least now I feel that I am on the road and not stagnating in a ditch at the side of the road.

I hope that those of you who are also feeling like you're in a rut with your weight loss will find something that will work to move you forward.

Wish me luck. For some reason sticking with a diet that makes me feel much better has never been my strong suit. So this may not be the final answer, but it is a step forward.

Nancy

Hi Nancy!

Thanks for the update. I am sending good thoughts your way, and hope you start moving down again soon.

In the meantime, feeling so much better is really the important part...