Hi there, I am 3 days in to my pre op diet, op is on Nov 19th. I am soooo hungry and every thought of food, sight of food, smell of food.. EVERYTHING is difficult to deal with. Its making me wonder if, after the band is fitted, i will be missing food and longing for food or feeling sad about the food i can no longer eat? I will not change my mind, i just want to be prepared.

Well Im only 2 months post op and I will say it does get better when you can eat real food again. I just started:) But yes ya do miss it a little. It gets sooo much better though. I think what I miss the most is the quantity of food. I liked to eat all my chinese take out not just a cup:( but I do find that I crave good things like salads and protein. I think the more ya stay away from sugars and white breads and starches the more you dont miss them. I ate a reese's on halloween which I dont think was bad but boy did I crave the darn things for like 3 days. Just do the best ya can and try to remember it gets alot better. The hardest part is the pre and post op diet. I never want broth or mushy food again BLUK!

I think there will definitely be moments when you miss food, Yes! You learn to deal with it, though. I just went through my kids' first birthdays since being banded and boy did I wanna eat a big fat piece of birthday cake. I sure did try, but I couldn't get much down before it made me miserable.

Sometimes when I'm in a restaurant and I see someone at another table taking a big ginormous bite, I think to myself "gosh I wish I could do that."

It's funny though cuz sometimes, I see my kids scarfing things down, and for a split second I think, "slow down - that's gonna get stuck!" lol. Then it's like oh yeah, I'm the only one that's banded.

It's totally worth it though! Good luck!

I miss sandwiches, which was one of the reasons I needed the band in the first place! I have to admit there are times I wish I could bite into a Big Mac! But I don't and that is okay. The benefits have far outweighed the cravings. Have a great week and good luck with your upcoming banding. It is the best thing I have ever done.

You will get used to the band as a way of life and before you know it you will be able to eat most anything just a lot less than you did in the past.

I guess I am the opposite. I am eating better food than I did before. I just eat a little bit. I take more time preparing my food and make sure it is exactly what I want. For me, I am loving the freedom of it all. There is no more guilt associated with food. I know I can have a tiny bit and be satisfied. I am looking forward to the holidays. I am looking forward to baking this year. I have avoided it the last few years because I knew I would eat it and feel guilty. Now I know that a half cookie with my meal will satisfy me and I can go on.

I haven't found any food I can't eat yet. I can eat bread but it fills me VERY quickly so I find if I do eat it, I only have a bite or two. Somebody mentioned a big mac. I was craving one so I got one. I took the two patties off the bread and I ate it with a fork. I think I ate about a third of it. It was delicious. In the past, I would have felt so guilty and let that set me off on a binge. I am happy to say that is a thing of the past.

Good luck to you!

Hi there, I am 3 days in to my pre op diet, op is on Nov 19th. I am soooo hungry and every thought of food, sight of food, smell of food.. EVERYTHING is difficult to deal with. Its making me wonder if, after the band is fitted, i will be missing food and longing for food or feeling sad about the food i can no longer eat? I will not change my mind, i just want to be prepared.

About a week before my surgery, I started wondering if I was doing the right thing. Two days before surgery I had an epiphany. My 'concern' was because I wasn't sure I wanted to give up the ability to 'chow down' on my favorite foods should I get the urge...e.g. at Thanksgiving. At that moment I realized how sick my relationship with food was.

We don't have to 'miss' food. We just have to eat less of it. Awhile back someone said they weren't sure if they wanted to get the surgery because what if they wanted, six months down the line, 'to eat a bearclaw'. My response was, "you still can...just not all of it and not all the time".

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I've turned into a chipmunk. My satisfaction is good healthy food, but having my mouth stuffed with food has been a huge mental loss for me.

So now, i make my healthy, tasty food, but stuff my cheeks full. That DOESN'T mean that I don't eat small bites. I can take 10 minutes to finish a mouthful of food. But i take 15 bites of food in one mouthful, then relish the fullness of my mouth and swallow little bits at a time.

Now THAT'S weird....but it works for me and takes care of the "mental mouthful" that i crave.

For some reason, i haven't missed food. I've cut out the bad stuff and am really enjoying healthy tasty food with lots of fresh herbs, etc.

It's the "mouthful" thing that makes ME look like a freak. But hey, we all gotta do what we gotta do to make this band work for us.

I'm 8 months out and I have to tell you it does take time. Like many others have said you will miss food. The first few months were the worst for me, I was a big sweet eater. I would go grocery shopping and walk around the bakery for 5 minutes, walk away, come back, walk away, come back. I had to tell myself "YOU HAVE WORKED TO HARD TO GET HERE" don't blow it and I would not buy anything. About 2 months after my surgery I remember telling my husband, a man that has never liked sweets and has no trouble losing weight, how hard it was for me. It's funny but now I do not want to eat sweets, breads and junk food. I never thought that would happen to me, but my body has changed so much. This is the best thing I have ever did for myself and I wish you the best of luck.

Hi:

I'm more than two years out and I don't miss food. Once you are past the pre and post-op liquids and mushies stages you'll be able to eat almost anything you want, in small quantities of course.

I do miss the full feeling that you get after overeating. However, I don't miss buying size 26/28 pants. There's trade offs for most good things in life.

Best wishes to you for your band successes.

I love my band and my new flat tummy!

Sue

Great question, and lots of varying and interesting responses.

I'm another one who doesn't miss certain foods. For one thing, although I have great restriction, there's really not any foods I can't eat, although some more carefully than others. I wasn't a big meal eater, so I don't have that to miss, but I was a junk food grazer. Man, I don't miss that in the least. I hated that I felt such a compulsion to eat and eat and eat some more. One Oreo..no way..I'd eat a six or more over the course of a day. One Hersey's Kiss..are you kidding me? (lol)

Now, with the band and good restriction, my hunger is under control, which lead to having control over my head hunger. I also attribute cutting out white carbs to my reduction of junk food cravings. (I get my carbs from veggies and whole grains, so I don't consider myself low carb, and I'll eat an occasional sweet without guilt). It could also be the anger that I had with myself for not controlling my junk food eating is greater than any regret I have for almost eliminating those foods from my diet. Plus, as a HUGE side benefit, I know I'm exponentially healthier.

Since food is the reason we have to be banded, I am sure everyone misses it at least for awhile. I am very happy to have this aspect of my life under control. Of course when we are hungry, we miss food. That is true of everyone on the planet. I think it is a matter of shifting our focus to other things. If we think about a chocolate bar long enough, it is going to end up in our mouth. If we choose to think about the fact that the pounds are coming off and we feel better and better, we can go for a walk instead of eating. I have always hated water, but now I think it helps with my hunger a lot. I drink it now and no longer hate it. Amazing!!! I am getting my first fill in a couple days and I am really ready. I like the restriction and I am looking forward to it. I think you will feel this way too in time.

I felt the exact same way! My surgery was 10.28.09. 10 days later, I can tell you that I don't long for food like I used too. I am still on soft foods, but it is more than enough. I myself can't believe I get full on 5-6oz of soup. Even those annoying food commercials aren't affecting me. When they took me for xrays post-op, they wheeled me right past Subway,(yes Subway is in the hospital lol) they were baking the bread. FOr the first time, I could care less. Didn't phase me at all.

'First' magazine has a great article this month about how we are trained to overeat by both the food and advertising industries, as well as great suggestions for how to change these bad habits.

One is to not dwell on whatever it is that triggers us. Learn to refocus our thoughts to something more constructive...instead of whining about how good it smells, how much we want it and basically obsessing about it.

I went grocery shopping with my mom today and discovered that grocery shopping is going to be my husband's new job at least for the next several months (fortunately, he likes to grocery shop and sticks to the list). We no sooner walked in the door of the store than the smells from the deli and hot food center hit us in the face. Now, I'm four days post op and I haven't been hungry or craving at all, but those smells hit me and my mouth began to salivate regardless.

Interestingly, when my son, a budding chef, cooks dinner for him and his father, the smells don't bother me a bit.

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You will be able to eat whatever you want when you are back on foods...Don't stress out on it. The only change is how much and there may be a few things that give you problems when you have restriction...

You are going to go through two months of a tough times with the before and after stage but after that it's just a learning game of what you can and can't get down... It will just be less and even "less" will not come until after you have had a couple fills. You will be amazed at how much food you can still get down once you have been banded...then that will be your next post. You will think something is wrong because your starving and can eat whatever you want!

Hang in there you are doing the right thing. Life will be normal again before you know it. It's just a new normal and you will like this normal much better:thumbup:

I have the same thoughts. I am very pre-op. Have not even had my consult yet. But, when I was talking about doing the surgery with my husband (who is also over weight) as a thought on why I maybe should not get the surgery he said, "won't you miss, like, not being able to gulp down a big glass of water or something?" I said, I think I am willing to give up gulping if it means I will be leaner and healthier. We are an overweight family. I don't know how "thin" people think about food. I notice my 11y/o scarffing down food and it worries me. I wonder if I will learn to let go of old "fat" ways of thinking and eating and be able to learn and teach my family the new "thin" way of thinking and eating.