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Peppermint will settle your stomach, I still can not drink carbonation. I tried once and it makes me belch really bad. I have let a diet coke go flat a year ago and have since gave up. If still nauseated ask the doctor for some medication.

As Missy stated, you ate what you wanted before surgery and you see where that got you. I totally understand not wanting to count calories, write food down, measure and weigh but if you can eat what you want and lose weight more power to you. I obviously couldn't and had to count calories, measure and weigh my food and learn to make healthy chooses. I wanted to get it right this time. But beware, if you ar eating everytime you get hungry you may be over eating. Good luck!

WTG, you are doing awesome. See dedication and accountability to ones self can accomplish a lot.

Hey I lost my butt but I got the smile! When I was younger my mom said she always hemmed my skirts 2 inches longer in the back because they would hike up from my big butt. See I was scarred as a child and doomed to have a big butt.

I used to drink a grande star bucks daily. I did skinny for a while but when I started lifting weights my trainer took away my dairy so black coffee for me. One thing, coffee is a diuretic, there are a lot sites that say for every caffeine drink you have you should have that much more water. If I did that I would need a catheter because I would pee myself to death. So drink your coffee just watch the calories those star bucks drinks can be full of fat and sugar unless you go SF and Skinny.

CG you crack me up, I think my hubby may have modeled for this pic, where is the payment! LMAO!

1 cup of food per meal. Protein and exercise is the key to success. I eat 80+ gms perday. Agree with all statements above. Something else that is key per the people responding to your post. We all have followed the rules pretty much to the letter and we don't eat sliders or junk.

Rarely does everything tighten back up with lots of hard work or a little cosmetics. i would love to have my stomach skin tightened but I am not sure it is worth the cost. It really does not hang over my pants or interfer with any activity. I do not walk around in public half naked so the only one who knows I have a loose tummy is me and my hubby and compared to what I looked like fat, I look pretty dang good naked even with a little loose skin. But of course I am older and skin does not go back as well when you have been fat for as long as I was fat. But my arms and legs and have done nicely with exercise and I have a cute little butt. Probably more info than you wanted to know.

This was the diet and practice my physician follows in south carolina for band patients.

You need to go back and see your doctor, sounds like your a little tight. Danger is aspiration from the reflux and too much acid in stomach may create an ulceration in the lining of your stomach. Call the office next week.

Send me a friend request, there are a lot of successful people on here who are willing to help. I am 2 years banded and at goal.

Great advice as usual Jean. Read the forums and stick with the positive people. We can support you and also give you constructive feed back that only hurts a little.

Awesome and good luck!

OMG, were we allowed to do the deed after surgery. That's why my hubby is so gumpy!

You are so on target about this slippery slope. I think that is why I still weigh, measure and log my food (also MFP) daily. I do not want to lose any momentum along this journey. MFP also helped me figure out when I would plateau how what I was doing wrong. I would print off my dairy sheets and take them in to my appointments and say help. Wise choices are always the best but the hardest to hard wire.

My doctor was not as strict, I did 2 weeks preop of a no carb diet and liquids 2 days before. Post op by week 2 I was eating soft food. I had my first fill at 6 weeks which was 5 cc's and I did not get another for 6 months and I had my last fill 8 months after the second fill. Before a fill I need to be NPO for 4 hours and after a fill I am on liguids for 48 hours, than a day of soft than back to normal, if I was lucky. I lost slowly, 122 lbs in two years. Anniversary coming up on the 27th of this month. My weight loss averages out to about 1 pound a week over a two year period.

Daily exercise, I also do weight lifitng 3 days a week. For maintaining the weight loss it is key.

Counseling is an excellent choice. The mental part of this journey is the hardest, getting your head to override your tummy is key to success. Good luck to you.

I obviously went to bed to early last night, LMAO. You guys kill me!

My surgeon will still not allow me to take them. The are more irritating to the stomach and the band. They suggest Tylenol but for me that doesn't work well so if you need to take I would suggest you use sparingly, they do make liquid motrin in child dosage and it goes through quicker but you have to take more. In the beginning I used a lot of liquid meds so not to irritate my band. I also got in trouble with my surgeon because of my pulmonary doc putting me on prednisone for acute bronchitis during that first year. Another med very irritating to the band.

You just need to take them one at a time with small sips of liquids. I was nervous in the beginning, I used to just take my hand full of pills and pop them in my mouth and swallow. They dissolve and go down. I take most of my meds after breakfast has settled about an hour or so later. I do use chewable vitamins, they are way to big for me to swallow. I may be able to but I was afraid they would get stuck. Good questions. the more you can learn pre surgery will only help you post surgery.

OK, the soft phase requires more chewing and more time to eat so even though it looks less size wise volume wise it is the same. Measure out your 3-4 oz's of protein. (In the beginning, it was more like 2-3 ozs for me. A soft veggie about 1/4 cup and some mashed potato's about 1/4 cup or starch of your choice. I ate a lot of mashed potato's that first six weeks because they were the easiest for me to get down. Put all your food on a small salad plate and sit at the table or kitchen bar and eat. This is where I practiced the rules, I took very small bites, chewed, chewed, chewed and put my fork down between bites. I worked on the meal for 20 minutes and at 20 minutes if I still had food on my plate I tossed it. This takes discipline but if you can learn to do this early it really helps later on. Also during the first month after surgery, I really worried that I would never be able to get all the calories in and food they wanted. I went weeks struggling to get to 700 calories but with practice it happens over time. You can do this, just think of it as another obstacle along the journey and with practice and patience you can get over it not around it.

OK, you both are............... I have been with my hubby for almost 20 years and he does a lot of stuff that annoys the crap out of me but I know i do a lot that annoys the crap out of him. But the most annoying thing he does now, is he thinks I'm a sleep and I hear the potato chip bag tussling and the crunch of the chips. Now that annoys the absolute crap out of me. But on the other hand, he has been my biggest supporter (except when he told me my thighs looked bad) but he paid for that comment dearly. i will keep him, he loved me when I was fat and he still loves me know shrinkles and all.

Suggestion to increase your dopamine surges, exercise. It has been proved with research in depressed persons that exercise increase positive endorphins and elevates mood. So I suggest a couple of walks during the day, one in the morning and one in the evening after dinner, because post op your going to need to get moving also in order to lose the weight. The band helps but you do the majority of the work. And for the preop diet, you will make it, yes the first few days are hard but you will appreciate the fact that you did it, it helps you to learn to control your hunger and another thing do not cheat. If you cheat preop you will cheat post op. Personally I hate the word cheat, I like to say I made a poor choose because I do not consider this a diet, I consider living with lap band a life choice. Good luck and we will see you on the other side.

Normal, normal, normal. There is no difference immediate post op than there was before surgery. You have a band yes but there is not fluid in it. The reason you feel fuller in the beginning is due to swelling, due to placement of the band. So, these first 6 weeks is on you. You have to practice the rules, small plate, one cup serving consisting of 3-4 ozs of protein and a veggie and if still hungry a small serving of starch. You need to measure or weigh your food in the beginning so you can really learn what a portion size is, do not trust your eyes. We have all lied to our self for a very long time. Do not graze, plan your meals and your snacks. I recommend you eat something every 2-3 hours but this needs to be part of your daily intake of calories. That is why I said plan your food for the day and split it into 6 meals and space them out. When the eventually put fluid in your band this will get easier but do not expect the band to tell you when to eat and when to stop eating, you have to do that also. Band living requires planning, I always carry snacks with me so I am not tempted to eat the high calorie snacks that others chose. Also drink, drink, drink your water. I can not stress this enough, if you don't like water flavor it with the SF packets that are on the market. If you are constantly drinking you do not think of eating so much. Good luck and it does get better, Really!