♥LovetheNewMe♥

I right there with you AJ. I had to increase my calorie intake to 1550. I kept losing and the doctor wanted me to stabilize my weight. We add 500 calorie at a time. I hit my target 3-4 days a week still eating around 1200=1300. Good luck!

Your awesome, AJ!

You can do this, you will be there by Christmas!

Congratulations and much success in your journey!

Congratulations and wishing you continued success!

I eat very little cheese or dairy, it does have protein but per calorie the protein in cheese or dairy is not as high as lean meats and than there is the fat content. I honestly do not think any foods should be off limits if you want them, it is portion control and consistency that is key to the longevity of this process. We are all at different places in our journey and each of us does what they need to do to get the results we want. I cut cheese, dairy and carbs to lose my last 30 lbs. I have gradually reintroduced this back into my diet but in moderation.

I would say consistency! Results yes we all want them and strive for them but to maintain the results you must develop consistency with your eating and your life. I tell myself daily, this is your life, your not on a diet, you can have what ever you want to eat but with poor choices there are consequences. At two years post op I am still very OCD, I weigh myself daily, I still record my food daily (MFP), I still count calories and I still weigh my food. I want consistency because I do not want to be another one of those people who had WLS and failed. I am working on the whole me and trying to hard wire healthy behaviors. Great post andtimelyy with Thanksgiving around the corner this week.

Desserts! I love pumpkin pie. My mom's giblet gravey was my favorite and I am so glad she taught me how to make it. I am cooking the Thanksgiving family dinner this year also and looking forward to having family and friends. Talking with my baby brother from Atlanta last night and he said, Sis, who is going to eat all this food. I told him to bring plenty of dishes for left overs. I love to cook and this is one of my favorite meals to prepare.

It takes time to really get it, and yes .25 can make a big difference and it makes you wonder how. The band can be very fickle by nature and it has a mind of its own, I still have days when I never feel that stuck feeling and than like this morning, every bite I took was a struggle for the first 10 min until my band decided to cooperate and I have not had a fill since the end of Jan. Just focus on the small bites and chewing and wishing you continued success.

I did continue to meet with my councilor post op back a year ago because I struggled with the emotional side of weight loss and had some strong issues with grieving food loss. My councilor helped me to realize that I could develop better ways to cope with my stresses and let go of my addiction to some foods. My way of dealing with the junk food is not to have it in your house. I do not buy it or allow my family to bring it in unless they take it to their rooms, out of site out of mind. I don't do slider foods and if I want a snack it is a planned snack in my daily caloric count, know full well if I do this too often I will not lose weight. Modifing behavor is the hardest part of this journy. I think see a coucelor is the right direction to go. Good luck to you.

Great post, thanks for the suggestions. Holidays are extermly hard with all the family traditions and like most all these traditions seem to circle around food. Great ideas for planning.

I had two co-workers that were banded 3 years ago, one never had success witht the band and had complications, they considered her a band failure, she had her band removed 4 months ago and had the sleeve and is doing well and dropping weight. The second co-workers band slipped after 3 years, they removed her band but because she was almost of normal BMI insurance would not replace band and would not approve sleeve. She is now 2 months post op band removal and is gaining weight and struggling. I do know that my physician will not replace the band if there are any complications because he feels if you have complications once you are at higher risk for a second round of complications. Not sure what I would do if I had to have mine removed because like you I really do not want to be cut. Good luck in your decision and I hope what ever you decide it works for you.

I am pro carb cycling. I have been doing a modified version of this for 8 months now. I eat a weight lifters diet to build lean muscle mass, I eat 100 plus gms of protein a day. I don't consider it fad or a diet it is the way I eat. I started eating this way when I started weight training. I start my day with carbs and protein, lean meats, green veggies after 3pm am not suppose to have carbs. I eat peanut butter every day in the afternoon. I take one day a week and eat what ever carbs I want. This helped me lose my last 30 pounds and I had been stuck for 7 months prior to this, eating my portion control and maintaining my 1000 calories or less, it just was not working for me. I eat more calories now, I eat healthier now and I still do portion control, I just watch my carbs and fats very close. Sundays are usually my cheat day and if I want something no matter what it is I eat it on this day. Sunday's I never hit my protein limit and I eat more carbs than I probably eat all week long.

I was banded in October of 2010 so I had my band 4 weeks before Thanksgiving, I had my first fill, the week before thanksgiving. I will say, it was a little over whelming to look at all that food. I took my salad plate and put a small serving of all my favorites on my plate. I was able to eat about half. One I was nervious, two we were at friends house. I got collard greens stuck of all things so my dinner was cut short but I did have a bite of pumpkin pie. Just follow the same rules you always do and that will help.

It is more of a discomfort than pain, well at least it was for me. Take what you read on the forums with a grain a salt, some people are way to dramatic. Just chew the best you can and one thing I forgot, if you do get stuck do not try and push it down with water it will come right back up.

You can add me, my dairy is public to friends. LovetheNewMe, same as this site.

I have tried a Chick Fli A waffle fry since being banded, I eat there grilled nuggets and fruit cup. Yum one of my favorite FF restaurants. I won;t lie I still sneak a fry every time my hubby has them but it just doesn't work for me. sigh!

It is like having a big lump in the back of your throat. It usually does not last very long and usually it is over very quickly. I wish I could tell you that you would never get stuck but it happens. I was always very careful but there comes that time when you are distratced for what ever reason and you get stuck and up it comes. You will be ok, do not stress over this, try to be as careful as possible and chew well.Good luck. Edit: I reread your post, one bit of advice I can give you is make sure your Protein choices are moist. I found that early in the morning it is more difficult for me to eat and in the early days I could not eat egg or any firm protein for Breakfast. I ate a lot of greek yogurt in the beginning becasue of protein content. chicken is one of those Proteins that sometimes you can eat and sometimes you can't. Microwaving foods make them tuff and sometimes difficult for a bandster. I enjoyed tofu and fish a lot in my early day because their textrue was easily tolerated by my band. First few weeks may be difficult until you learn what to expect but it does get better. I did learn to be creative with Protein powder and egg whites. I added these to my Protein shakes to make sure I got enough protein in my early days, Honestly I wondered in the beginning how I would ever be able to eat that much food but I did and so will you. Good luck to you.

Kimi, it is frustrating but it happens off and on through out this process. I can not tell you the number of times I would be stuck at a weight and I never thought I would get to onederland. it will come, just be patient and continue to do what you are doing.

Not me, wish I could, I think it is my punishment for loving McD's FF. I have tried and everytime they get stuck. I also do not eat bread or sandwiches. Everyone is different maybe you will be able to.

Ok, quilty, so quilty. Popcorn is my one vice. I gave up everything else, soda, alcohol, sweets, potato chips, bread......... I have been able to eat popcorn the entire time. I can eat about 1-2 cups depending on how my band is responding. I buy the small bags, 100 calorie ones, pop them, spray, I can't believe it's butter on it and some fresh ground pepper. I do chew the heck out of it but it is the one thing I really enjoy as a snack, it satisfys my urge for salty snacks.

Seriously

It takes time but you will eventually become adjusted to the new you. And the attention is nice, but now I find that some people are jealous. I have decided that I am the only person I need to please. First I was too fat now I'm too thin. Geez, some people are never happy!

Early in this journey, I only weighed myself when I went to see my physician. Now that I am at goal, I get on the scale eveymorning before showering. I want to make sure I stay at this weight. The only reason I did not weigh daily when losing was becasue I did not want to become a slave to my scale. I lost a lot of inches while building muscle and it would have been depressing not to see the numbers get lower. So I say yes own scales but don't allow the scales to rule your thoughts on WL, there are many NSV along this journey.

Protein is key to WL with lapband, MFP is another good free app or Spark People. I track everything but I am very OCD.