It has been some time since I came to you for support. I hope someone will give me some time to give me some guideance.

On July 28th it was 2 years since I was banded. All and all it has been an amazing experience. I started down this road at 320lbs were a size 26, 44 pants and now am at 210 and were size 18 pants. Deciding on the band has been the best tool ever to better health for me. I did'nt know I could feel so good.

I'm sure this sounds like I should have no reasons to not be postive yet.......

I know I want to lose more, atleast another 30-40lbs yet I am stuck. Please someone, is this normal? I have been so focused yet I now feel that I am losing some of that. I have not been exercising like I should, not taking my vitamins, and slacking on what I should be eating.

On Tuesday Iam scheduled for a fill which I have'nt had in about 6 months. I am so worried that I have stretched my pouch. Can that happen? and how do you know? Would it be beneficial for me to go on liquids for a couple of days?

Are there others of you who have felt this way?

I know I have accomplished much yet I just dont feel I'm completely there yet. What do I do to get back on track?

Lapband talk has always been so helpful to me. I hope some of you will find in your hearts to reach out to me again. I really need the benefit of your experience, wisdom, and kindness.

For some reason I feel this is a critcal time for me. I have'nt been able to tell anyone about this. I have had about 4 friends who have recently decided to schedule the surgery but I don't want to go to them with my feelings.

Thank you so much for letting me in and at least letting me get it out------finally.

Micki

Hi Micki. Your honesty will serve you well on the next leg of your journey. So many of us get stuck, and digging out of old behaviors we thought we had conquered can be disheartening. They say with alcoholics, one of the goals is to fall off the wagon for shorter periods of time each time. For us, when old behaviors crop back up, we shouldn't be surprised. We spent a lot of years cementing them into our brains. The nice thing about the band is that it will essentially allow you to be a laggard for awhile without that rapid weight gain we USED to get when we screwed up. Catch your breath for however long you need to, and when you are ready, get back to work. List the basics of living with the band, and figure out what you want to tackle first. Keep a log of your calories for a few days and see what bad stuff has snuck back in. This is all about how we learn to live permanently with new behaviors, and sometimes it's hard work. Don't kick yourself. It's just all part of it for some of us.

I had a stretched pouch. I went in for a fill and was already full, but she could see from the fluoroscope pics that my pouch was bigger. She says it happens from things we do wrong, or even from doing nothing wrong. I'm very restricted in the morning, so even liquids in the morning could take too long to go through and stretch the pouch as they sit there. Many people then get a complete unfill or a partial unfill and let the stoma rest. With mine, I went back on liquids for 3 days and I was good as new. I also started sipping rather than guzzling my Breakfast. I guess the big deal with stretching is that if you try to live with too tight a restriction for a long time and with the subsequent stretching, you can get into a more chronic problem. I know when she told me I had a stretched pouch, I thought the world as I knew it had ended, and it turned out to be an easy fix and a cautionary tale.

I keep a list of the rules of living as a bandster taped on my refrigerator, and I'm always finding something I need to do better, or that I just didn't do for awhile.

Congratulations on your journey so far! Oh, and I also found out that for me, I am the worlds best at talking myself out of going to the gym. But I put Tony Horton's 30 minute routines on my portable CD, turn the sound off and turn the TV on, and I watch 1/2 hour of TV while I do his worout routine, and it's over before I know it. I find that I'm not going to be a major athlete in my life, so I need to have lots of different strategies for getting in exercise. I also found that sitting and watching TV is my worst emeny, so exercising in order to give myself permission to watch seems to work....

I hope you get lots of responses to this thread. I'll be interested to see what others are doing.

Micki, you and I are in the same boat exactly. I weighed 320 post op and I'm down to 224 and a size 18. The only thing I can tell you is a fill will definitely help. You must recommit yourself to your exercise right away too. My goal is to recommit and give up alcohol after I go on vacation in September. Write me anytime. I would love a new friend!

I'm not banded but at the info session I attended the doc sais if pouches get stretched, they put you on a liquid diet for several days to let it get back to normal. If nothing else, just be sure you get protein and nutrients (I guess with protein powder and vitamins?) to keep your health up. Plateaus happen, and I wish you the best in breaking it :mad:

Oh my goodness...you sound exactly like me right now. We both lost a lot of weight with our bands pretty quickly and that's says a lot about how dedicated we are to this process. But, it also probably means you didn't snack or cheat and worked out every day, just like me.

My thoughts on why we're struggling right now?? We're burned out.

I got frustrated and let my focus wane. My reward is a terribly depressing 17 pound gain over 4 months. Now, I am really struggling with thoughts of failure.

But like someone else said above, this whole thing is a journey. We didn't get to be over 300 pounds in a year or two so patience and balance are what we need to focus on to continue losing the rest.

I think we can do it. I know for myself that I have to stop trying to "lose weight" and just start living my "healthy lifestyle". When I do that I know I'll start reaching my goals again. I need balance. It's OK to have something yummy for dessert or dinner once in a while...not once a week. I don't have to be perfect...I just have to be consistent.

So, that's my new philosophy and you might not agree. I just wanted to share that with you seeing as we both seem to be in the same boat right now.

It has been some time since I came to you for support. I hope someone will give me some time to give me some guideance.

On July 28th it was 2 years since I was banded. All and all it has been an amazing experience. I started down this road at 320lbs were a size 26, 44 pants and now am at 210 and were size 18 pants. Deciding on the band has been the best tool ever to better health for me. I did'nt know I could feel so good.

I'm sure this sounds like I should have no reasons to not be postive yet.......

I know I want to lose more, atleast another 30-40lbs yet I am stuck. Please someone, is this normal? I have been so focused yet I now feel that I am losing some of that. I have not been exercising like I should, not taking my Vitamins, and slacking on what I should be eating.

On Tuesday Iam scheduled for a fill which I have'nt had in about 6 months. I am so worried that I have stretched my pouch. Can that happen? and how do you know? Would it be beneficial for me to go on liquids for a couple of days?

Are there others of you who have felt this way?

I know I have accomplished much yet I just dont feel I'm completely there yet. What do I do to get back on track?

Lapband talk has always been so helpful to me. I hope some of you will find in your hearts to reach out to me again. I really need the benefit of your experience, wisdom, and kindness.

For some reason I feel this is a critcal time for me. I have'nt been able to tell anyone about this. I have had about 4 friends who have recently decided to schedule the surgery but I don't want to go to them with my feelings.

Thank you so much for letting me in and at least letting me get it out------finally.

Micki

A pouch dilation usually requires an unfill and two weeks of liquids with a barium swallow before and after the two weeks.

Here are the hard questions that I ask of people who are stalled for a long time:

1. How many calories per day are you eating?

2. How many times per day are you eating?

3. Do you snack?

4. Do you drink with meals?

5. Do you graze?

6. Do you drink non-diet beverages?

7. How many grams of Protein do you eat daily?

8. Are you eating any junk food at all?

9. How much volume of food are you eating at one time? (In cups of food)

10. How many minutes of exercise PER DAY are you getting?

You don't have to answer those questions to me, but I recommend you ask youirself those questions and see if you can find the cause of the weight loss stall.