LeslieM

Those prices are in pesos. It is only $5. I know because I didn't eat the whole time I was there only to find out later that the sign for pesos is also $. The food there is really good. I ate when I came back for my first fill. Good margaritas too, but that is forbidden, of course

I was also confused about the mental/physical hunger thing until I got my second fill. Since then I haven't been hungry much at all. I do feel a little empty and my tummy rumbles and then I eat a little. But to be perfectly honest it is 100% the band and 0% my willpower. There may be a trace of willpower in the fact that I know if I overindulge I will get an immediate negative physical response. So I don't.

I am doing South Beach. I have The South Beach Diet Cookbook. I've cooked every recipie in it (except for fish which is expensive here in Ohio). There isn't one bad recipie in the book as far as I can tell. I am feeling good and healthy and loosing weight. I loose with Adkins, but I feel terrible, and the children don't want all that meat. Rock on South Beach Diet!

and I've seen the promised land. This post is for anyone who has the band and is wondering why its working for everyone else but not you. I was banded Nov 13 by Dr Ortiz. The surgery went perfectly. The clinic was clean and comfortable. The staff was kind and competent. I felt great. But the day I left the clinic I was starving. The next day was my flight home. Through a series of unfortunate events I ended up being at airports or on planes for the next 14 hours. There are no protien shakes in airports or on planes, and as I mentioned, I was starving. So I started eating mushies. I made a half hearted attempt to get back on the protien shakes when I got home, but it didn't work out. When I went for my first fill Dec 15 I weighted 1 pound more than I did on my surgery day. I was dissapointed, but I had found some posts sharing similar experiances, so I was not yet broken. I got 1.8 cc in my 4 cc band. Tried some broth for dinner & threw it right back up. Whenever I tried to eat for the next week I PBd. I was starving constantly. I felt like a ravenous hyena who had been banished from the pack and was not allowed to share in the kill. Desperate. (On the bright side I had lost 8 pounds in 8 days) So I began the battle with the band. I used wine and hot tea to loosen it up. Whenever I was having a loose day I ate as much as I could. I ate things that I could always get down like chocolate and nuts and I avoided meat and veggies because they were more challenging. I learned to chew everything into liquid and then I could eat as much as I wanted. I was still PBing at least once a day, but it was worth it. I was no longer able to sprint binge, but I could win the gold medal in endurence binging. Then I won the battle. By week four much of my restriction dissappeared, and of course, I was still constantly starving. I got on to a November bandster's thread and saw how everyone else had lost 20 to 30 pounds. What the hell was wrong with me. I was two pounds over my surgery weight and was on the road to slipping my band with my stupid PBing. What a looser. So I decided to get another fill. I was kind of afraid because I was PBing so much I thought I might be too tight, but I had to do something. Two days ago I got another fill to 2.5 cc. I have not felt a moments hunger in the two days since the fill, and I haven't PBed either. I think I may be too full because I can only eat a couple of tablespoons of food at once and I even have to drink slowly. But I know now that this is going to work. It is just all about getting the fill level right. I feel full now in a mechanical way, based on pressure in my stomach, not in the warm endorphin way I use to. But I feel new endorphins now that cause a kind of dizzy euphoria because I feel like everything is going to be alright. Happy at last in bandland. Leslie

Twice a day since my first fill on Dec 15. Banded Nov. 13 Dr. Ortiz 185/178/130

vanity? not exactly. Once I was leaving on a camping trip and my husband rebuffed my attempt to give him a little hug and a peck. I was shocked and then realized that there were other moms there and he was embarrassed of me. Since then I've noticed he and my kids ignoring me frequently in public. I am a civil engineer and I have to compete with other engineers to get good projects. I never get projects that haven't been passed up by all the other engineers. It has been suggested to me that it is the way I look. I am an embarrassment to myself, my family, and my employer. I feel so exposed and mortified. Is that vanity?