Occassionally, I run across a few posts from people like me who have failed their bands. But these posts are usually just a venting opportunity. I have failed my band - I acknowledge it - and it would be great if we could have a group of other "failures" who want to work together to become success stories.

MY STORY

I was banded in March of 2007. At the time I was 299 lbs. I am a 6ft tall lady. Today, I weigh 255, and basically just as big as I was when I got my band. I have got numerous fills and I usually eat through my fiils. I can eat whatever I want. I overeat and I am confident that I have caused my stomach to expand. I snack on candy, I eat the wrong foods - I eat until I am STUFFED. Sometimes when I overeat, I feel sick and gag to relieve the pressure.

I moved to Houston 4 months ago, and last week, I went in for a port-readjustment with Dr Alanis. It went well and I now have a new resolve to make it work. My doctor mentioned to me that about 40% of all bandsters fail. I do not want to be a failure. I have paid too much money to go through this.

MY GOAL FOR DECEMBER

• To write everything I eat down, including calories
  
• To stay within 1500 Calories.
  

What's your story? What's your goal? How can I support you? How can we support each other?

Misery loves company, and company can help us move from failure to success. Please join me by telling me your story, and your GOAL for December. Let's vent - but more importantly, let's talk about strategies to make this work - let's share and support each other - Let's turn this from failure to success.

I REFUSE TO BE A FAILURE

I am so sorry to hear about your trouble, but glad to hear you were able to get it corrected. Congratulations on getting back on track.

Hey Everybody! Is there room for one more in here?

I had my lapband Feb.5th of 2008 almost 1 year ago. Anyway I have been doing awesome up untill about 2 months ago I guess. I havent lost anything in those 2 months but i havent gained either. I am looking for some advice and help i guess to kick myself in the butt and get moving down the scale again. I started at 340 and am now down to 225. That is a great loss but i know it should be more. I know i can do this. I have gotten several fills. I actually have 11ccs in a 10 cc band. how crazy is that. The crazy thing is I am still eating like crazy. At first i was doing great with the last fill but now i guess i figured out how to eat around it.

I really dont understand myself. I cant eat till around 12 so I have coffee in the morning with cream and sugar then at luch i usually can only eat like one chicken strip or a small amount of cereal.

But after lunch its like the flood doors open and All i wanna do is eat. And the stupid thing is I am not even hungry most of the time. I will eat and it will hurt so i wait a f ew minutes and then i can et somemore and keep doing it till what ever i am eating is gone.

I feel like i have failed my band and myself.

I know I am doing wrong so why do I do it???

I keep saying i am gonna start the pouch test thing and i get up with full intentions to do it and i find myself eating and say oh well i will start tomorrow but tomorrow never gets here.

I know i have rambled on and on but i am just frustrated.

ANybody know how i feel?? lol

I can't tell you guys how happy I am to have found this thread! I have been banded since Feb 07 and I am failing my band. I have felt so alone and so stupid! Here I went and spent 16k to lose all this weight and all I have lost is a measly 20lbs. Well I'm not going to let this get the better of me! I am back with a vengence. I know what I am doing wrong so now I need to make it right. Now I don't feel so alone after seeing there are others out there struggling just like me. I know I can do this and I would like to join this group to use at as support. Thank you to all of you who are sharing. I have changed a few habits these past few weeks, I am working out 4 times a week and trying to eat better. My goals for this week are to increase my water intake and eliminate all forms of chocolate from my diet. I have 60lbs to lose to get to my goal. I want this so bad! I hope to get to know all of you on here. Thanks again to all of you courageous enough to admit your weaknesses!

Well I'm back, had a rough week. My 16 yr old foster daughter ran away. After several days of searching, we found her. She refused to stay, so she was taken to juvenile hall until they can find other options.

Through it all I was eating everything in site, Cookies, Pasta, M&M's etc. and I still lost 1 lb. I don't know why I lost the lb. It may show back up in a day or so.

I am sorry to hear about the problems you are having. Teenagers are hard to deal with. Hopefully she will wake up before she does herself more harm.

Hi Everyone,

How are you??? I have been MIA for a couple of weeks. I feel like a part of me was missing!!! Really missed you all. Thanks Cryzytchr for drawing me out.

The last week was miserable for me with work. Really intense pressure and expectations. I was literally working from 5AM to 11PM daily. Of course, my food choices were HORRIBLE. Needless to say, I got SIck - tonosolitis - and my doctor indicated that many times, stress will do this to you. So now, I cant eat as it hurts, but at least it is forcing me to rest.

i see we have a few newbies. Havent really read through everything yet. WELCOME - we love having yoi.

I gained 5lbs in the past week but lost 3.2lbs overnight (crazy body.) Now that I am a litlte unwell, I am on Soups so that might be helping.

I hope you are all well - thanks for the motivating posts, and I will be back more regularly. Congratulations to all on their successes as well.

Talk to you soon!!!

Well, I think we can all agree on here that we are emotional eaters. Just like you guys, stress sets me off without even knowing it. I am starting back at work next week after being off for a year at home with my new baby. I'm nervous about going back but excited as well. Maybe this is what I need, to get back into a routine so I'm not thinking about food all day. I have been working out regularly still but my body seems to just crave the sugar. Why is that? It's like an addiction, I have sugar withdrawals. How do I get over that. Any ideas? Please don't tell me will power....or maybe thats all it is?

Hi Everyone,

Today, I weight in at 236.6. I am at practically 2 months since the beginning of this thread and the beginning of the recommittment journey. 19lbs down and that literally brought tears to my eyes when I did the comparison. Two months ago, I was on plateau/upward movement zone - thinking my band doesnt work and I was such a failure. In the last two months, I have had NUMEROUS "failures" but my successes were greater - maybe 75% of the time right. This just shows me that it takes doing the right thing MOST of the time to get the weight falling off again. My two year bandiversary is in March and I hope to be able to proudly shout that yes, I am a bandstar - and it may have taken me a little while to get it right, but I finally did!!!

Let's keep it going, fellow bandstars.

My Goals for February:

a) Start working out- I really need to - 3 times a week

Eat healthy - 1500 calories a day.

c) drink 64 oz of Water daily

d) Post on LBT at least 4 times a week - I have struggled with this in January

e) Dont let stress from work force you to eat. Find other sources of release other than food.

WE CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I'm back, had a rough week. My 16 yr old foster daughter ran away. After several days of searching, we found her. She refused to stay, so she was taken to juvenile hall until they can find other options.

Through it all I was eating everything in site, Cookies, Pasta, M&M's etc. and I still lost 1 lb. I don't know why I lost the lb. It may show back up in a day or so.

WELCOME BACK Kaelin's G-Ma. I'm sorry to hear about the stress with your daughter and I am sending warm wishes your way. Hope everything works out.

Onm another note - congrats on the weight loss. Now - get back on track!!!

Just checking in...not a lot to yell with joy about. On the positive side the exercise is doing great but on the flip side the eating still sucks!! Still trying and will never give up. Counting the days until restriction!!

Hi Scarlett - How are you??? any restriction yet? Crossing my fingers for you!!!

Hi Ladies,

My goals for tomorrow are:

*Write down everthing I eat.

*Eat 1500 calories or less.

*No sugar other than my 1t honey, fruit, and a piece or two of dark chocolate.

*NO SODA!!! This one is going to be tough.

*No drinking liquids around my meals. This one will be super-hard too.

* Eat chicken or tuna for lunch and dinner to try to feel fuller.

Thanks for listening. If you have answers to my questions please help!

-Hilary

Hi Hilary,

These are great goals and my heart is with you. How are you doing so far?? I can connect with practically everything you say - the crazing salty Snacks - my weakness is tortilla chips and salsa from chipotle - yeah, dont ask. And i cant have just one. For me, I jusr have to STOP eating them - just STOP. Moderation with them does not work for me. And after a few days of stopping, the taste goes away. The other day I went to chipotle to get chips and salsa (handnt had it in about a month) and it was just not as appealing.

I am with you as well on the eating then eating right after. I finally accepted that I dont like salad and have stopped trying to eat that - because inevitably, I want to eat something after. i eat rice and ground beef, sphaghetti, sandwiches, frozen dinners when i dont feel like cooking, etc. Real food - and when I do this, I find it helps with my satiety.

how is your restriction? How many cups of food can you eat per sitting? are you getting enough mprotein in??

I thought it would be interesting to post something my Dr. gave me with my fill:

"Our goal with these adjustments is for you to be full and satisfied with 3 small Protein meals per day. Eventually, it should take you 20-30 minutes to eat 3-4 oz of chicken. You can expect to lose 1-2lbs per week. If you haven't lost any weight for 2 weeks, it is the result of one or two things: 1) your band is adjusted correctly, but you are eating soft carbohydrate calories that move through the band easy; or 2) you are trying to practice protein 3x a day but your portions are bigger and you are hungry between meals. If it's the latter scenario then its time for a band adjustment. If you are cheating the band with soft calories then its time for a DIET adjustment (emphasis added)."

Makes sense to me. My goal is not to count calories, but eat protein meals with a few veggies until I'm full. Then not eat again until I'm actually hungry (not head hungry). I'm gonna try it right this time and see how it works.

Hope this helps some of you!

This is SO WONDERFUL Nashville - how are you doing now on the working out and eating? How about the acide reflux - better now??

I am very happy to have found this forum. I too have been struggling. Banded 8/07, lost 62 lbs. but since Sept. have gone up and down to the tune of about a 15 lb. gain. Very discouraged, but realize it's my own fault. Am also definitely a food addict, especially sweets and bad carbs. Have been neglecting exercise as well. Am going to try to make some definite changes. I have always done well when I track my food. This is my first post, so I hope I'm doing it right :thumbup:. I seem to overeat by slowing down and then am able to consume more. I just always seem to have a hard time when it comes to discipline. I plan to come back regularly to this site. Talk to you again soon!

It's wonderful that you have chosen to recommitt, TTHOMP!!!! What are your specific goals for the month of February??? And please, be proud of the 62 lbs - and at least you only gianed back 15, instead of 80 as in the pre-band days!!! :cool: So the band has bene good for something!!!

I am very happy to have found this forum. I too have been struggling. Banded 8/07, lost 62 lbs. but since Sept. have gone up and down to the tune of about a 15 lb. gain. Very discouraged, but realize it's my own fault. Am also definitely a food addict, especially sweets and bad carbs. Have been neglecting exercise as well. Am going to try to make some definite changes. I have always done well when I track my food. This is my first post, so I hope I'm doing it right :thumbup:. I seem to overeat by slowing down and then am able to consume more. I just always seem to have a hard time when it comes to discipline. I plan to come back regularly to this site. Talk to you again soon!

Hi TThomp - Glad you have decided to recommitt to your band. You can do this!!!! And take heart!! You lost 62 lbs (which is impressive) and only regained 15, not 75 as in the pre-band days!!! :cool: So at least the band is good for something, right?

What are your specific goals for the month of February?

Hello All- As you can see from my stats- not very impressive - no one would be asking me to be the postergirl for the lapband. I did not get enough fills early in the process, but believe that I may actually be approaching my sweet spot soon. I have come to realize a few things and wonder if anyone can relate...

• I became depressed a few months after surgery when it did not fix everything. Now, I am smart enough to know that it wouldn't, but, it still happened.
  
• As a result, I found myself drinking alcohol becuase I could and as a way of numbing myself.
  
• Alcohol passes just fine through the band and has oodles of calories.
  
• So do many other things that I should know better than to eat (ice cream, chocolate, etc)
  

So, I faced all of this and stopped the antidepressants (yeah, I think they were messing me up more than helping me) and although, I swore that I would never do this again, walked in to a Weight Watchers week one meeting. Yep - accountability - just like at the start of the band process.

I really never thought I would have to do this again, but the band does not fix everything - it really is just a tool.

Aquameliza,

You've made great progress just with the realizations you made, and I am confident that if you continue on this track, you will begin to see the kind of results you want to - and feel better too. Please let us know what we can do to support you. How are the weight watchers meetings going, and what are your goals for the month February??