Hi guys

First of all, this is a VERY long post. I am venting. Alot of you are going to read this post and just say "duh", you need to do "x, y, and Z". I am mostly writing this as a way to motivate myself and hopefully get the support I need from other people who are in my same boat (or WERE and succeeded eventually!)

I was banded in July of 2003. I originally lost about 50 lbs, about half of the weight I wanted to lose. Since 2005, I have stayed at about the same weight. I started out at 244 and now I weigh 194. I have been down as low as 187 or so. I am 5-6 and 32 years old. For a while now I haven't really worried about it, but I have just gotten to that point where I want to feel and look good. FOR GOOD! However... now the weightloss is REALLY difficult. I mean like I have to struggle soooo hard to even lose one pound. It is extremely discouraging. I feel like how I felt before I got my band. Hopeless sometimes and way behind the 8 ball.

I should mention a few things:

1) Haven't had a fill since 2005. I know, obviously this would be the first step. Plus, I just want to have it checked out. There has been ALOT going on in my life since then and I need to find a new doctor where I live. (Dallas now!)

2) I do know that for the most part... my diet sucks, for lack of a better word. I have gotten lazy over the years and also I have become a very picky eater. Not picky about WHAT I eat so much as HOW it's prepared. Fattening Fattening Fattening, and a carb addict. Being a bandster, you taste every little dang thing so I have totally become a food snob. I have tried to be alot better lately, but let's put it this way...even eating very healthily I find it VERY hard to stay under 1700-1800 calories a day. I am just too hungry.

3) I am having the hardest time motivating myself to exercise. I have a long commute, leave and come home in the dark. Money is tight. I don't live in the safest area to go walking at night when I get home. I get bored SOOO easily with videos and wish I just had a workout buddy, someone to walk with or SOMETHING!

4) For the record that unrelated to my band (or my diet- they believe it's hormone/vitamin supplement related), last Feb I was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in my right leg and pulmonary emboli in both lungs...(blood clots!) I was placed on Coumadin to thin my blood and ever since then it's just about impossible to lose. I also can't eat hardly ANY green vegetables. I am allowed to have a salad 3 times a week, and that is it. Green veggies counteract the meds (as crazy as it sounds) and for someone who previously LOVED her salads as a filling way to control her weight, this has been very frustrating.

I know these all sound like excuses. #1, 2, and 3 can be fixed, but #4 cannot.

Please please please can someone help me get out of this negative downward spiral that I am in... give me a little sunshine and hope and positive feedback... I need someone to grab my hand and tell me I can do it and I can FINALLY live up to my potential, stop hiding:cool2: behind the fat because it's NOT who I am anymore. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!

I KNOW there have got to be some of you out there who have gone thru similar things. Please help.

I love all my fellow bandsters.

Keep it up and lets keep each other going! Think of all we went through to get here!!!!!!!!

I think first thing you should do like you said is go see Dr. to make sure everything is still where it is suppose to be and get a fill. Then find some type of exercise you like nowdays there is every kind of videos, machines for sell and gyms. Maybe go to the gym on the way home from work?

Maybe you could do some exercise during your lunch or breaks if you get them at work. Just look deep inside yourself and think of all the reasons you want to continue to lose weight. Then post it where you can see it and carry a copy with you in your purse and when you get discourage take it out and read it.

Also I would recommend some type of counseling to help you get back on track. I did 2½ years of it and it was the best thing I ever did in my life, better than the band. I had a lot of issues that I did not know I had and they contributed to my eating for comfort.

Trust me if I can do this you can. I am only 5 months out but it not always easy for any of us.

So trust yourself and believe in yourself and just start over. Private message me if I can do anything or you just want to talk.

Cheri

Wow Elvis girl- you lost 50 # and kept it off for what 6+ years. That is excellent.

That is why I got banded. Since my 3rd child 22 years ago, I have lost 30 to 60 # 10+ times, only to regain it.

So you didn't get to goal. But you kept off that 50#.

Now you are ready to finish the job.

You are like us newbies. You have a tool inside you that with the right diet and exercise can help you lose the weight and keep it off forever. Calories in vs Calories Out with a great helper.

Pick a diet(I go to weight watchers), Pick exercises(I have a bodybugg). Get a doctor, get a fill.

You already are a great success. So go for it:thumbup:

Good Journey,

MaggieGT

Elvisgirl:

You can do it! You've done it before. You just need to remotivate yourself.

Write a list of why you want to lose more weight. Keep that list with you and remind yourself constantly of the reasons why.

You probably need a fill. So, please go to see a band doctor and get checked and let him know about your current medical situation. I'm sure she/he will have some suggestions to get you restarted on your weight loss journey.

About exercising. I am in New England and it's very cold here. I'm hoping that Santa will bring me a mini trampoline to jog on during the extremely cold days because walking outside when it's freezing sucks. They cost about $50. This could be a fairly inexpensive way for you to exercise at home.

Best wishes to you.

Sue

4) For the record that unrelated to my band (or my diet- they believe it's hormone/vitamin supplement related), last Feb I was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in my right leg and pulmonary emboli in both lungs...(blood clots!) I was placed on Coumadin to thin my blood and ever since then it's just about impossible to lose. I also can't eat hardly ANY green vegetables. I am allowed to have a salad 3 times a week, and that is it. Green veggies counteract the meds (as crazy as it sounds) and for someone who previously LOVED her salads as a filling way to control her weight, this has been very frustrating.

:smile2:Hi - First of all, keeping off weight for 6 years......AWESOME! Second, great job finding your way back to some support and motivation.

As for your blod clots (very serious - I have been there) if you are having your PT/INR and you are not OVER doing your dark vegetables your doc should be able to keep your levels straight by adjusting your coumadin.

Find a doc and go get checked out. He/She will be able to help you with your nutrition plan as fas as your coumadin goes. We are always looking for long timers on this board. Hope you stick around.:thumbup:

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys are soooo awesome. I feel so unbelievably good after reading all of your comments. I should have come here long before now, but I'm glad I finally did. Thank you so much for the support. I needed that so much. And yes, I was thinking about going to counseling. Since being banded, I have learned I have some deep seated issues regarding 'eating for comfort' and I am more readily able to realize it now. Overcoming it is the next hurdle.

What do you think about hypnosis combined with therapy? Have any of you tried it or heard of anyone who has been successful with that?

Thanks again so much. I am so glad I have this forum!

Well Hello - I am so there with you. I am new to this "posting" thing so I just found your post. I had my surgery in Aug 2003 . . .lost about 60 pounds my first year & now have "re-committed" to the process. I got lazy & learned to eat / drink and that wasn't keeping me full. "Plus" side is that I have kept the weight off but the sad side is I want to be heathly & it seems the only way is to lose weight. Last year, 2009, I started again, in one year I lost 35 ponds so over all i am down a good 90 pounds from my orginal weight. I want to lose to fit into a size 16/18 comfortably - what ever weight that was. Thanks for letting me vent now to suggestions that you might want to consider.

The program that my doctor promotes is the a high Protein one. He wants us to have 60/80 grams a day & then other intake. I have never been able to handle lettuce (salads) so I am not of the loss there. Last year when I started again, I found myself totally bummed b/c I tried to change EVERYTHING at once. I needed to do small steps to get my body back into the habit of smaller & better. Maybe try baby steps like for me - I cut out all sweet tea (southern style with 100% sugar), then I got some peddles - Wal-Mart ($24.97) to use while I sit & watch TV or movies or read a magazine. I don't break a sweat but I do that about three times a week and it has helped. I have followed the plan to a "T" ? No but I am working on getting back to the plan, back to the to the basics of surgery. I finally came to the realization that I spent (insurance paid) a lot of money for surgery & I haven't done squat with it. Time I did.

Try the baby steps, think about the little things that you can change then after a while they will not seem so challenging.

Good Luck - I am in TN but holler at me anytime - daytime e-mail suzanne.ginter@HCAhealthcare.com

You guys are so awesome. I am so glad I posted here because it feels so great to know that I'm not alone.

Another long post. Get ready! This one is a good one.

Okay so I have had some very encouraging self-enlightenment these last few days. I remembered something from a very long time ago, when I had researched the band IN DEPTH. I mean I still see it all the time, but it's like if you've read it once, you've read it a hundred times. Us "experienced" bandsters tend to think they've tried it all and heard everything. Well, I do anyway.:smile2:

I randomly remembered something that was pounded into my psyche in the beginning, that it was completely taboo to drink anything while you eat. I remember when I was first banded, doing that felt so uncomfortable. It was strange getting used to the tight feeling of being full in my CHEST and not my stomach area. So, at the time, I asked my doctor. Keep in mind, my doctor was the head of bariatric surgery at a famous hospital in Los Angeles, so I trusted him completely *at the time*. (Keep in mind, this is the same dr. who screwed up the original placement of my port, and also the same guy who said it would be totally fine if I took Tagamet for the rest of my life every single day, without trying to get to the source of the problem. Do you know how bad that is for you? Really? Long term use? Well, it is.)

I asked him if I could drink when I eat, and he said sure, that is no problem. The way he answered it, he made me feel like he was trying to say "don't believe everything you read, you silly Google addict!"

I felt relieved, because drinking while I eat removed some of the pressure I felt in my chest and I could eat more comfortably. I had been worried that drinking was going to STRETCH the pouch, which can happen...but that is not the point. The point is, drinking when you eat totally defeats the restrictive purpose of the band. It washes the food from your pouch so you can just keep eating. After getting the blessing from the Dr, I got so used to drinking with my meals again that sometimes I wouldn't eat if I couldn't have something to drink with it, because I couldn't stand that uncomfy full feeling. I learned to actually like the feeling of food sliding thru the band opening because I felt "relief" and it meant I could keep eating. (mostly because I love the taste of food, I am an emotional/stress eater, and I love to cook and spend hours on elaborate recipes- its so frustrating to spend all that time cooking and only get to enjoy 3 bites of food!) I don't know why I didnt correlate the drinking while eating thing with the almost complete slow-down of my weightloss from that point until now. That was like 5 1/2 years ago!!! I mean I am a smart girl! Why did I never put two and two together? DUH!!! I also realized that when I started drinking with meals is when I started experiencing MAJOR heartburn.

In the past few years, I had been having SOOO much trouble staying on a calorie restricted diet. I had to REALLY work HARD to stay under 2000 calories, and even then I felt like I was dieting. I felt like I didnt even have a Lap Band. If you read my post above you will feel my frustration.

I think in the beginning, I wasn't really accustomed to the weighty feeling in your chest signaling fullness. It felt sooo uncomfy to me. In my inexperience, I was probably taking too big of bites and not chewing enough. So,on a whim last week, I decided to try the "no drinking for 30 min before, during, and 1-2 hrs after a meal" again for the last few days.

In 3 days, with hardly any exercise, I have lost 4 lbs, and have felt almost zero hunger.In the last few days, I have been able to stay at 1100-1200 calories with absolutely no difficulty, and that is with 3 meals and 2 Snacks. If I was eating chicken, steak, or fish & veggies, I would probably be around 1000 calories or less. That is my goal for next week. I am going to go by how I feel. If I feel weak eating so little, I will eat more. But if I am losing weight and have enough energy from the Protein, then it's full speed ahead!

I have been eating pretty much whatever I want, but trying to choose filling foods, with alot of protein (if I can), and eat very slowly, chewing well. When I feel uncomfy in my chest, I stop. If the uncomfy feeling goes away, I take another bite...and so on, until I am satisfied. You can bet that this weekend when I grocery shop, I will be buying lots of solid protein and veggies. I can't WAIT!!! This is soooooooo encouraging!!!!!!!! I feel like jumping up and down!!! I mean, it has been my own dang fault, but I feel like I just woke up from a bad dream or something!

Also re:heartburn. In the last few days since I have been doing this, I have experienced virtually NO heartburn, no matter what I eat. I have a theory about this based on some research I've done in the last couple days. When you eat, it triggers the production of stomach acid throughout the entire lining of your stomach, including the portion of the lining within your banded pouch. When food hits the stomach acid, the acid has a job to do, i.e., somewhere to go. It uses it's acidity up on the food and processes it for your digestive system.

However: If you are drinking when you eat, you are washing the food from the pouch down into the lower part of your stomach. The problem is, the lining inside the pouch is still producing acid-but that acid just kind of sits there with no food to digest. It can go thru the opening of the band into the lower stomach, but it's such a small area that it doesn't flow freely. Lately, since the food I eat has been sitting in my pouch till well after I am done eating, the acid does its job and moves along its merry way, causing me no pain.

I feel like the most fantastic weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I hope maybe by reading my book-like post (sorry!!!), someone else will try this and hopefully ease some of their frustration that they might be having with the same issues!

My workmates & I are doing The Biggest Loser. We shall see who wins... :thumbup:

Take a good look at how much you are drinking when you eat!!!!!!! See if it helps!!! I will keep you all posted, and really try to keep my posts ALOT shorter. HAHA :sad:

And by the way, thank you guys SO much for all your great suggestions and support. I am going to try one of those little mini trampolines too and hope that all my downstairs neighbors don't hate me too much for it. :smile2:

Another good exercise option is dumbells and resistance bands. Walking isn't the only option! :smile2:

Hey guys...FYI in the 10 days that I have been not drinking while I eat, I've lost 7 lbs. That is the ONLY change I made. I realize I also have to exercise, but this quick progress is SO encouraging. :w00t:

Hi guys

First of all, this is a VERY long post. I am venting. Alot of you are going to read this post and just say "duh", you need to do "x, y, and Z". I am mostly writing this as a way to motivate myself and hopefully get the support I need from other people who are in my same boat (or WERE and succeeded eventually!)

I was banded in July of 2003. I originally lost about 50 lbs, about half of the weight I wanted to lose. Since 2005, I have stayed at about the same weight. I started out at 244 and now I weigh 194. I have been down as low as 187 or so. I am 5-6 and 32 years old. For a while now I haven't really worried about it, but I have just gotten to that point where I want to feel and look good. FOR GOOD! However... now the weightloss is REALLY difficult. I mean like I have to struggle soooo hard to even lose one pound. It is extremely discouraging. I feel like how I felt before I got my band. Hopeless sometimes and way behind the 8 ball.

I should mention a few things:

1) Haven't had a fill since 2005. I know, obviously this would be the first step. Plus, I just want to have it checked out. There has been ALOT going on in my life since then and I need to find a new doctor where I live. (Dallas now!)

2) I do know that for the most part... my diet sucks, for lack of a better word. I have gotten lazy over the years and also I have become a very picky eater. Not picky about WHAT I eat so much as HOW it's prepared. Fattening Fattening Fattening, and a carb addict. Being a bandster, you taste every little dang thing so I have totally become a food snob. I have tried to be alot better lately, but let's put it this way...even eating very healthily I find it VERY hard to stay under 1700-1800 calories a day. I am just too hungry.

3) I am having the hardest time motivating myself to exercise. I have a long commute, leave and come home in the dark. Money is tight. I don't live in the safest area to go walking at night when I get home. I get bored SOOO easily with videos and wish I just had a workout buddy, someone to walk with or SOMETHING!

4) For the record that unrelated to my band (or my diet- they believe it's hormone/vitamin supplement related), last Feb I was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in my right leg and pulmonary emboli in both lungs...(blood clots!) I was placed on Coumadin to thin my blood and ever since then it's just about impossible to lose. I also can't eat hardly ANY green vegetables. I am allowed to have a salad 3 times a week, and that is it. Green veggies counteract the meds (as crazy as it sounds) and for someone who previously LOVED her salads as a filling way to control her weight, this has been very frustrating.

I know these all sound like excuses. #1, 2, and 3 can be fixed, but #4 cannot.

Please please please :w00t: can someone help me get out of this negative downward spiral that I am in... give me a little sunshine and hope and positive feedback... I need someone to grab my hand and tell me I can do it and I can FINALLY live up to my potential, stop hiding:cool2: behind the fat because it's NOT who I am anymore. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!

I KNOW there have got to be some of you out there who have gone thru similar things. Please help.

I love all my fellow bandsters.

Keep it up and lets keep each other going! Think of all we went through to get here!!!!!!!!

hi I am glad you posted this I am 18 months out of surgery and just strarted to get back on track. for 2 weeks I have talked about it n this week I have 3 dayz back in gym and eatng right. of course you cannot work out like I do but .

1, you can e-mail me personally revtammyb@gmail .com and we can motivate each other.

2. take some large can goods and work your upper body. use gallons of Water... just get your metabolism moving. one day is too much so take it 5 minutes at a time.

get on the post like I am doing now because I want to eat but I am not hungry. I read post unitl it is time to ea seriously.

4. journal I will send you this journal post that this guy wrote on this site to help you get back on track.

I have lost 10lbs this week just gettng back on track. yes I have cried I text my friends and talk to yall

lastly salads aint good for you anyway-empty calories. Protein, protein, protein

60 grams of protein

6-8 glasses of water with crystal light and

Fiber

try it

send that journal it can be very helpful to those of us in limbo

If you have an iPhone..I have been using the "Lose It" app... I believe it's free (or very cheap). Anyway, it is sooo helpful. I track my daily food/calorie/exercise...and also my daily weight. 7.3 lbs down since 1/5/10. :mad: