This is a place to tell your TLBC banding stories.

Share your experiences with:

* Consultations

* Testing

* Phsyc exams

* Seminars

* Surgery

* Support

* Staff

* Recovery tips

* Fills

* Out of Town Fill Doctors

* What do you wish you had known?

* Etc...

I will be banded in 7 days & I will post my story here. :party:

Hi: I guess it is all in the perception. I don't find it bitching but just being able to state outright things that upset us. I am here to support anyone and everyone. Not just the peaches and roses type of comments but the upsets, sickness, etc.

For instance, complaining about aftercare is vital. How many times have we seen on TV an individual that could not get a resolution from a company but once the person went to the media, amazing how solutions are found.

So, Happy New Year everyone, continue your journey but vent any time you like. Better that than turn to food (like the good old days).

i agree with peaches it is a new year.stop all this bitching and support each other.we are on this journey together.happy new year.

Can anyone tell me how much weight they lost after their first fill? I'm hoping that with the hoildays over I can get down to brass tacks a little better with my food choices. How did everyone make out over the holidays with all the get togethers and big meals?

Can anyone tell me how much weight they lost after their first fill? I'm hoping that with the hoildays over I can get down to brass tacks a little better with my food choices. How did everyone make out over the holidays with all the get togethers and big meals?

About 1 pound per week, but I was really focusing on eating properly and watching my portions.

It wasn't until I was filled to 7 cc's that the BAND was doing the work.

It can sometimes take 3 - 4 fills to get to 7 cc's, that being said, everyone is different. SOme people have a thicker fat pad around their stomach, so they may only need 6 'ccs in total to get restriction. (I am talking about a 10cc band, that's what Dr. Yau put in me)

About 1 pound per week, but I was really focusing on eating properly and watching my portions.

I am the same.

I don't have restriction yet at 5ml, but it is sheer fear of wasting my $18,000 that keeps me in line.

I did farily well over the holdays and planned what I was going to have. I had the odd glass of sherry, some nuts, some popcorn, turkey with all the stuff that goes with it EXCEPT I planned the amounts this time. I held even

Since my first fill I have lost 63 lbs - 1/2 lb Approx. a week. I keep a loose fill at 5.5. any more and I am vomiting everything I eat.

No doubt about it, once the initial weight loss in the first year has been lost, it then starts to get more difficult and more effort has to be put into getting the weight off. Good luck

Can anyone tell me how much weight they lost after their first fill? I'm hoping that with the hoildays over I can get down to brass tacks a little better with my food choices. How did everyone make out over the holidays with all the get togethers and big meals?

i agree with peaches it is a new year.stop all this bitching and support each other.we are on this journey together.happy new year.

I haven't read the over a dozen pages but I hope they are not all the same I know the last 3 or 4 I read were nasty and not helpful.

TLBC and promises, I would encourage anyone who has a special deal ie fill Drs, anything out of the norm with any surgeon or staff member to get it in writing then there is no confusion as to what and who promised anything. Until you have it in writing there isn't a whole lot you can do about it because it becomes a he said she said situation.

As for the rest of it Slimband is a great progressive clinic and they are willing to do things to help their patients. I was looking at the event calendar and things like lectures by Dr Barry Simon who I have heard speak and is amazing he actually gets that our heads are different than people who have never had a weight issue.

Today marks my seventh year of banding and I can't tell you how far things have come. When I was banded there were no clinics and lots of promises, I could go on but as I posted somewhere else it is kind of like listening to your parents who walked 40 miles to school in ten feet of snow up hill both ways.... remember it is all about you and you are the one who can do this and you are the only one who is responsible if you succeed or fail!

There is absolutely a need to get all the details out good and bad and where you succeed and where you fail but focusing on the negative will only breed more negative. Focusing on things like the compliments you got, how you feel in your body as you lose weight... how you move better how your back hurts less and your knees don't creak... those need to come out too.

Maybe this is the time to start posting what works for you... what in the clinic worked for you what you would like to see more of? Maybe with the new year it is time for new goals and new attitudes.

It might even be time for a new thread.. to start the new year right and focus on where things are going and good they are.

Heather

I'm all for a new thread or three, that's for sure!

Yes, I read in the paper recently that if you write something good that happened to you each night before you go to bed, before long you will be much more satisfied. But if you write down all the bad things, they found that people were more unhappy and dissatisfied. That is sure to be the same with how we feel about ourselves.

I'm not saying that we should haven't a bitch now and then and this is certainly a place we should be able to ask how we can do things better, but I'd like to see it more active too!

Mary

I think I lost 11 lbs before my first fill but I cannot remember how much I lost between my first and second. My weight loss was never dramatic but it sure was satisfying for me. And after 10 months of eating much, much less (thanks to the band) and much more carefully, I was at my goal. I weighed 145 and my total weight loss was about 50 - 55 lbs. I was very content with that. I think that I was thrilled by my relatively slow weight loss because of a few factors: 1) until I got the band I had been gaining 2) the only times I was weighed was during my visits to TLBC or my doc. This meant that I wasn't obsessing about weight gain/loss on a day to day basis. Whenever I was weighed, the loss was a wonderful surprise for me. Oh, and 3) I did receive a lot of positive feedback throughout the process of losing weight. Those NSVs are important to a grrl, eh.

Since then I have lost a lot more weight but this has been due to cancer. My band is currently defilled but my appetite is returning and I am thinking that I am going to need filling up fairly soon.

o.k. then, check my 'ticker' I am down those crummy 3 lbs that I gained over the holidays!!!

SO now its on to the next MINI goal. 10 lbs gone by Jan 31st..

WHo's in with me to do a mini challenge, 10 lbs at a time????

Cammon' I know you wanna!!! You lurkers out there.

CALORIESCARBSFATPROTEIN 642,56,24,54

these are my today totals, but I hav't had dinner yet or my planned snack.

Yes Heather what you post is absolutely true. We should all be upbeat and have spring in our steps as we journey along. But that is not always the way it is in real life. Real people have their ups and down and sometimes this site is the only place to express their feelings.

Try to disuade people that post negative thoughts is not helping them in any way.

I am thrilled you have seven years of wonderful progress and I personally like to hear about your journey, but I also want to hear from the souls who are struggling. I try to read into what they are saying and hopefully I can give them a little light at the end of the tunnel.

The TLBC (Slimband) is my clinic and I still feel they are the best but they have struggled recently in reorganization. The previous posts were people who were frustrated and needed to vent. Going public with complaints about a company after numerous unsuccessful attempts to solve a problem quite often brings a solution. It did in the most recent post.

So I would encourage anyone that is having issues to post your concerns and not stifle them. Getting your feeling out in the open is the only way you can solve them. Keeping your thoughts to yourself will only fester and we all know where that leads us ---to more eating.

Claire I just read your message and I agree completely with you! Jill is the reason I have lost 164 pounds! I was banded last year at the begining of Dec. 2007 and She had a series of Bootcamps starting last year in January which had anywhere from 10-20 people come each week and they were great! Jill taught me so much about nutrition, exercise, attitude and the fact that she is banded also was so great! She knew what I was going through. I could call her at the client if I was having problems and she would always offer excellent advice. I feel she was the only one that provided any follow up for me. I met Dr.Yau on the day of my surgery and he said maybe 10 words to me and that is the extent of my relationship with Dr.Yau. If I had not had Jill I don't think I would have had the success I've achieved. And I think she made the $16K worthwhile. Not the care from Dr.Yau!

I was so upset when I heard in Decemeber that Jill had left TLBC. I want to get in contact with her, I think I have a number for her home that I'm going to try. I'm going to see if she would be interested in doing a Nutritional seminar or something similar to the Bootcamps. Please contact me if you would be interested in doing one of these seminars? I lost 38 pounds in my first 6 week Bootcamp and another 25 at my 2nd one! It was what made me work and motivate! My email address is: Hanbemarketing@gmail.com and if I can get enough people interested Jill hopefully will put something together. I will keep everyone up to date on what's happening! I really can't say enough as to how much something like this will bring to you in your weightloss journey!!

Claire I just read your message and I agree completely with you! Jill is the reason I have lost 164 pounds! I was banded last year at the begining of Dec. 2007 and She had a series of Bootcamps starting last year in January which had anywhere from 10-20 people come each week and they were great! Jill taught me so much about nutrition, exercise, attitude and the fact that she is banded also was so great! She knew what I was going through. I could call her at the client if I was having problems and she would always offer excellent advice. I feel she was the only one that provided any follow up for me. I met Dr.Yau on the day of my surgery and he said maybe 10 words to me and that is the extent of my relationship with Dr.Yau. If I had not had Jill I don't think I would have had the success I've achieved. And I think she made the $16K worthwhile. Not the care from Dr.Yau!

I was so upset when I heard in Decemeber that Jill had left TLBC. I want to get in contact with her, I think I have a number for her home that I'm going to try. I'm going to see if she would be interested in doing a Nutritional seminar or something similar to the Bootcamps. Please contact me if you would be interested in doing one of these seminars? I lost 38 pounds in my first 6 week Bootcamp and another 25 at my 2nd one! It was what made me work and motivate! My email address is: Hanbemarketing@gmail.com and if I can get enough people interested Jill hopefully will put something together. I will keep everyone up to date on what's happening! I really can't say enough as to how much something like this will bring to you in your weightloss journey!!

NOTICE

Kindly be advised that Jill Seward is no longer employed with TLBC/Slimband. She is therefore not authorized to represent TLBC/Slimband in any way or conduct bootcamps on behalf of the company. The bootcamps provided by TLBC/Slimband are proprietary to the company and cannot be offered by 3rd parties. For information about support groups for patients please contact TLBC/Slimband directly.

Lisa Borg

Director of Marketing & Communications

Slimband

Thank-you Lisa for the clarification. Lisa what would be very helpful is finding out where and what the different bootcamps TLBC/Slimband is conducting. I have been on the slimband website and I can't find anything.

I think maybe I should clarify also I was not going to approach Jill for a support group of TLBC, what I throughly appreciated and really benefited from was Jill's background as chef and nutritionist. She really helped me with my menu planning and food choices. She helped me with living with the band. And I found being part of a group that met once a week really gave me the accountability to know I was weighing in and that I had support of my peers to exeperience my success and my pitfalls.

I'm still going to pursue the idea of seeing if Jill is interested in doing counceling for obesity, menu planning, and nutritional expertise. So if anyone is interested please let me know.

Make it a great day everyone!!

So I guess that answers the questions about TLBC monitoring this board. It sounds like Heather is also a TLBC/Slimband employee. I have been watching this place for a while and have found it very helpful in my lap band jurney.

However if TLBC is watching and posting how do we know what is true and what is not.:thumbs_up:

How does TLBC have the right to stop someone from setting up their own bootcamp if it would help us?

Now I am really confusd.

cindy

"How does TLBC have the right to stop someone from setting up their own bootcamp if it would help us?"

I can't imagine that they can. If Jill isn't promoting herself in any way as part of TLBC then I can't see why people couldn't pay her a fee to be part of anything she wished to set up on her own. I also think it's unnecessary to bad mouth her. That's a private matter between her and them. I for one feel it gives a worse image of them, than her, as she's been a great help to so many.

Mar