I am in the pre -banded limbo stage waiting for doc appts etc. and thinking way too much lately. Wondering if anyone feels incredibly frustrated during the adjustment stage??

Do you miss not eating like you used to?

Do you ever feel deprived?

the more I think of it the more I fear I would go nuts without my food rewards:cry

With the focus off food now tho, do you have more time and energy? Too much energy. I just don't know where all that energy would go. I put alot of energy into eating and always have.

any comments would greatly be appreciated.

thank you

at any time during the

hi there!

iam having the same burning questions as you right now. iam going for a consult on 9/25 and ihave soooooo many questions just like yours! iam so scared that i will not be able to eat anything. they say that many types of food cause upset and the scares the heck out of me!!!! just wanted you to know that you are not alone :girl_hug: good luck in your journey !

I'm actually excited that I won't be able to turn to food as therapy anymore, because it'll force me to look my problems in the eye and not eat through them. This way I can be on my road to healing and figuringmyself out, which is an ultimate goal of mine :girl_hug:

I struggled with it until my 3rd fill. I would be eating something and want more or I would try to eat something I knew was a bad idea such as a donut and be sad that I couldnt eat it. It would frustrate me. But then my scale started moving and I started learning how to eat, what to eat, and when to stop. Now I dont plan my life around all the things I feel like eating. It doesnt drive me crazy all day thinking how good a frito pie would be or how I am missing out on Saturday morning donuts with my kids.

Instead when I eat now I am proud of what I am eating. I dont feel bad after I eat because I am not eating a bunch of crap. Pre-banded I would sometimes even sneak foods because I didnt want people to see me eating them. My family is eating healthier because I am the one who prepares the meals. I could have brought home 2 whole pizzas from work yesterday but I had bought myself a big chicken for dinner so we all had that.

It is hard at first but you get used to it and it becomes the new you. Eventually you will realize if you want good results you have to eat good foods. You realize the consequences of eating a donut no matter how good it tastes are just not worth it!

Good luck!

im worried about this also, i am trying right now to eat less and not eat as often but sometimes i sneak snacks in because i know that i can. im hoping that once i get banded i will feel good about not overeating. i know now that if i eat alot i feel very guilty. sometimes i eat when im anxious so i dont know what im going to do when i get banded how will i deal with my anxious moments?

andrea

I do miss my old way of eating still sometimes. For DH and me, eating was entertainment and a shared interest/guilty pleasure. It was also a way to self-medicate, to avoid dealing with emotions that I didn't want to. However, it was also stealing my health, so I knew I needed to do something.

I'm not sure I've learned how to cope really yet, it's an ongoing process. And yeah, it's scary at times, but it beats staying in a place that I was all too used to. I do still use taste at times, when I'm feeling restless and bored, but things like herb tea or crystal light.

I've ended my love affair with food. Our impending "forced" separation will be good for us both.

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels--and I am going to be able to live that phrase, as if I don't, I will puke.

I think the mental challenge you go through regarding food after banding is the most difficult part of all of it. I went to a movie today with my son and sat there and drank water while he ate popcorn. It is frustrating at times, but knowing that you are healthier (especially when stepping onto the scales) really outweighs the frustration. Obviously we all had some sort of love affair with food and had to fight our own demons when adjusting to the band, but it happens-it just happens. You change and you even feel proud when you make the correct food choices.

It's not as hard as you think it will be...and it's harder. Remember that most people have time to begin to adjust because after surgery, there are still fills needed for the restriction to be complete. For me, that gave me time to learn what I was doing, and get used to it a little at a time...although I was soooo impatient to get full restriction. I was ready fro it when I really got restricted. Then I had to deal with by reasons for eating, a harder challenge than I thought. I couldn't figure out what to do if I couldn't eat when I was bored. I couldn't figure out what to do while driving, if not eat. The good news on all of it is that the learning comes in stages, and you just peel back the onion a bit at a time as issues arise. I never felt like I'd been dropped off the edge of a cliff and wanted to panic about not being able to eat. It wasn't that harsh, so you end up working on things.... I guess that's the good news/bad news. It's not so automatic. You develop a working relationship with your band: Sometimes you let each other down, and sometimes you get it right. The nice thing for me is that screw ups no longer mean that I gain weight....just means I lose less until I get back on track. I can live with that~!

Yes, I do, but not in the way you've described.

Do I ever feel deprived? No, definitely not. I have not given up anything, I eat a basically healthy diet but I've labelled no food good or bad, I eat anything, in moderation. I still eat my worst foods - cakes, donuts, muffins, very very occasionally. I go out for dinner and may choose more fattening indulgent foods than I do for everday meals. But 90% of the time I eat healthy. I was basically a healthy eater before perhaps 65% of the time, so its not been a very difficult transition.

If I have that really bad head hunger, really want to eat something for inappropriate reasons (boredom, anger, frustration) I just do it. Normal weight people are not perfect eaters, they do stuff like that too, its how often you do it that determines whether you have a weight problem or not. But being normal weight and full of energy, those moods just dont hit me that often anymore. I'm a much more active, focussed and positive person.

Where I get frustrated with my band is the thought of eating with others for meal after meal. Like going away to stay at a friends' beachhouse for Easter this year. They eat crap, every meal, its junk food, take away etc. I was nervous, I knew I was going to be a pain to them, not wanting to eat this or that. And I was, lol. I took a lot of food with me, but everybody oohed and aahed over what a health freak I was when really, I'm not, they're just particularly poor eaters. But sitting at the dinner table and getting blocked after a few bites - gosh I absolutely HATE that. You cant eat, you cant swallow another thing, you just have to wait till it passes, or get up and walk around, and that's really embarrassing, I fear it and I get frustrated by it.

And very occasionally, I simply cant eat dinner. My band tends to tighten up when I'm stressed or tired and I may be hungry but I sit down and take one bite and know dinner is not happening that night. I find that frustrating - not because I want to eat so badly but again because I worry that it might happen when I've jsut paid for a meal in a restaurant or am sitting at someone else's dinner table. But it never has - company and a glass of wine tend to relax me.

But do I miss stuffing my face, eating inappropriately, eating unhealthy foods in large quantities, using food to soothe unpleasant emotions - absolutely not in the slightest.

I am 4 and a half weeks in.........2 weeks pre op......2 1/2 weeks post op..........I feel FABULOUS........I'm down 27lbs.....my skin looks great......my hair looks great........my energy level is way up........this is the BEST decision I've ever made.....I'm self pay $16,500 and I do not regret one penny.......I look forward to better health and energy every day........

All the best to all of you.........you can do this.......

Maybe it's too early for me to put in my two cents, as I have only been banded for a little over two weeks, but I will say no. In the past, every time I stuffed my face with unhealthy junk I felt this tremendous guilt afterwards. I would feel bad physically and emotionally. Why did I do that to myself? I have been doing a lot of head work and have not obtained an answer, but I do know I don't want to feel like that anymore, it just wasn't pleasant.

Here are 2 other bonuses for me....I have stopped taking meds for diabetes, and I no longer have osteoporosis, according to my test yesterday!

I think the mental challenge you go through regarding food after banding is the most difficult part of all of it. I went to a movie today with my son and sat there and drank Water while he ate popcorn. It is frustrating at times, but knowing that you are healthier (especially when stepping onto the scales) really outweighs the frustration. Obviously we all had some sort of love affair with food and had to fight our own demons when adjusting to the band, but it happens-it just happens. You change and you even feel proud when you make the correct food choices.

I also went to the movies with my wife and son last Friday (the first time since my surgery on 7/11). I ate my dinner before we left and brought a bottle of water and a Crystal Light packet with me. They did not eat dinner (he was at the gym and Mom had to go pick him up so there was not time) and ate at the theater's snack bar (hot dogs and cheese fries). I sat there and watched the show and amazed myself how content I felt sipping my lemonaide and basically could care less that they were eating. I think that had it been a couple of weeks earlier when I was on total liquids, I might have felt frustrated but having the pleasure of being to eat real food again sure helped. :hungry: