steelerfan1

Mindy, I'm so sorry you are going through this I wish it could have turned out better for you. Congrats on your weight loss though and from the way it sounds in your post you really learned some valuable lessons to carry on with you weight loss journey. Good luck to you today and much good luck in the future

I can eat anything I want also . When I first met my doc I asked him about all them foods and he said yes some people do have trouble with them, but he made it very clear to me that the band isn't in me to restrict me from my favorite foods , the band is in me to teach me to enjoy my favorite foods in a proper portion control I still eat the same foods before my surgery, I'm just alot more careful , I watch how often I eat my favorite foods. I love pizza its my downfall. Before my surgery I would eat pizza five times a week sometimes two times a day and let me tell you I could put it away lol. Now I eat pizza once a month maybe twice a month and two slices and I'm happy with that . Just remember the band is to help us with portion control and to help us to say fuller a little bit longer that is it nothing more , nothing less. I didn't get WLS to give up everything , I got it to learn how to eat properly and yes that includes them bad foods of pizza, chips , or even a fast food hamburger

this is a interesting discussion ! I am like Thee-O and that is how I work my band. I had my surgery on 11/22/10 and I have lost 64 pounds and a little over 30 inch's since then and I have done this without a fill in my band . I just needed that mental image to let me know that I didn't need to overeat at meal times, that I didn't need to inhale my food down while I ate and that is what the band does for me . I always ate way to much at meal times. I was never really a snacker or a sweets eater , I just didn't know how to control my portions at meal times. I would sit down and eat six slices of pizza and a large sub and not think about it . Now, I can sit down and eat two slices of pizza and I'm very happy with that . I wanted to learn how to sit down and eat a healthy meal. Proteins, carbs and veggies and be happy with that , knowing I didn't need to go back and eat seconds , thirds or even fourths . I have really struggled the last several months and have not lost a single pound. I was just about ready to go in for a fill , but when I sat down and thought about it and was very honest with myself it has been my fault that I haven't lost no weight. I got extremely lazy in my exercise, and I am eating foods that I never touched the first six months after my surgery. Getting a fill wont take my butt to the gym, and getting a fill wont stop me from eating the foods that I am eating , that is something I need to change within myself. And part of me is worried about getting a fill , it wouldn't stop me from getting one but it does make me think twice. A friend of mine relied way to much on fills, my doc calls people like that fillaholics. She abused the fills and she lost her band. She has gained all her weight back because she didn't learn nothing from her band, she didn't learn how to eat healthy, she didn't learn portion control because she relied on the band to do it all for her . I didnt want to do that , I need to know if I lost my band tomorrow I can continue on with my journey of losing weight if that makes any sense . Also , we know there is band problems out there, its not secret and the less I mess with my band ie getting fills, unfills it might save me from having problems in the future. I do have some restriction, maybe not the best like some of you on here but I'm happy with it. In fact I got reminded just yesterday that I have the band in me. I skipped Breakfast I wasn't hungry and by the time lunch came around I was starving. I went to Kroger's got me a deli chicken and ate way to fast and to big of bite and I got stuck. It went down but dang did it hurt and I got reminded that hey you I'm around your stomach you dont need to eat like that lol. Lesson learned . Right now I'm happy with no fills, I probably could lose weight faster if I went and got one but I didn't put this weight on overnight and dont expect it to come off overnight either. My doc has always told me he didn't put the band in me to restrict me from my foods, (I still eat everything that I did before surgery), he put the band in me to enjoy my favorite foods but learn how to eat them foods in proper portion control and how often to eat t hem favorite foods . A vet told me on another site long time ago Moderation not deprivation .I live by that rule 100% . Food will always be part of our lives, I want to learn how to control the food, not to let the food control me Thanks again for the very intersting discussion. I like to read how others do things