Veronica.N

I have that too! It's SOOO aggravating! Mine has gone down though doing abdominal exercise and putting on firming lotion, as well as generally losing weight and gaining muscle.

Pretty much any restaurant you go to will have a healthy menu, and if it doesn't I simply ask for a box ahead of time and put half of it to go. Out of sight, out of mind Nothing wrong with treating yourself! You just have to know how much you can handle so you don't feel bad afterward. I don't care about other people too. People who know I have the band or not know that I take a long time to chew. It's my thing. I told them it helped me lose weight, and everyone believes me

Oh! I've been interested in liquid collagen for a while. Have you seen any difference in using it or know anyone who you know it's worked for? I've been kinda skeptical...but really curious. I really want to believe in it

I want to bring up the wonders of Avocado! I was surprised that I had gone from a close to 40DD to a 34DD after 120+ pound weight loss! I got measured several times because I thought it was impossible for me to not at least go down to a D. My breasts have surely 'thinned' out, but I wouldn't say they're empty sacks. My cousin told me maybe it's because I ate a lot of avocado. I usually have it twice a week or so...which I guess isn't a crazy amount, but maybe more so than people who aren't used to eating it. She had also lost a lot of weight but completely lost her breasts. The avocado is the only thing we really did differently, and I looked it up. And yes...Avocado actually does help preserve and promote breast size. http://www.md-health.com/How-To-Increase-Breast-Size.html Just search avocado breast growth, and you'll see tons of articles on it. So there is still hope, even for those who think they have lost their boobs for good. Lots of good boob foods in the article, not just avocados Check it out!

Hi Cherrytree! I think the best thing is just to keep active during your weight loss! I've lost over 120lbs, and have some saggy skin, but I consider it minor compared to some other photos I've seen of others who have lost 100+. I really didn't become super active until about 1/2 way through my weight loss journey, so I think if I would have started earlier, I probably would have had a better result. Youth also plays a factor. I don't know how old you are, but I'm 27, and I'm sure that helped plenty. My other tips are: - Make sure to strength train while working out, it helps tighten skin. - Drink A LOT of Water. Water also helps tighten skin. - Avocado is a great food to eat to maintain healthy breasts. - Use skin tightening/age defying cream. I use Hempz Age Defying Herbal Body Moisturizer, Though I'm sure there are better products out there. This is just what's easily available and affordable for me - Wear form fitting clothes I've never heard of someone having a saggy vagina from weight loss But I do have the typical other sagginess. Mostly in the legs, belly, breast and underarms. Just from working out, I feel confident now to show off my calves and arms. My belly is almost flat except for a little bit of sagginess above my belly button. My inner thighs still have quite a bit of sag though I half expected it, only because I was always bigger on the bottom than the top. My breast are actually looking OK. They look less 'filled', but they look natural. I think having the muscle I have now underneath REALLY helps. Thank you push ups ! My cousin also pointed out to me that my love of Avocado has probably also helped me preserve my breasts. At my heaviest I was a tight 38DD (should have been 40...but didn't want to admit it lol). I am STILL a DD, but now a 34 I've gotten measured several times because I still couldn't believe it. Avocado is the best!! Good luck to you Cherry! It'll be a long journey, but once you get where you want to be, you'll know it was so worth it

Well said dawalsh! I mean, honestly, if you think about it, most 'normal' people really do watch what they eat. There are those few exceptions of people who can eat whatever they want and don't gain a pound, but most of them struggle with health issues, body image issues, etc, just like we do/did. Weight is all about a balance, and unfortunately at one point in our lives we lost that balance. We just have to do what everyone else does and focus on our balance of food, exercise, etc.

Sounds awesome! Hubby and I will try to make it

Steph, unfortunately we will NEVER be thin and enjoy that many calories a day unless you're working out like a horse. On my workout days, I can assure you that I will easily intake 1600 calories a day, but my workouts are very intense. If I didn't have a band, I'm sure I wouldn't be maintaining, even WITH the workouts. It doesn't matter if you have a band or lost the weight naturally, we will still have this issue where it will be harder to to lose and maintain weight than someone else our own size, weight and height. I know how unfair it is, and I struggled with this after my nutritionist told me, but I've come to terms with it. I'd rather eat smaller portions and be where I am now than where I was before. You can always have the band taken out, or unfill it completely, but at this point, I know if I did I would sky rocket to the way I was before. I've made the lifestyle changes, but being able to realize I'm full after eating a normal portion of food was something I had never experienced before. I would worry less about eating large amounts of food compared to just having good quality food. Believe it or not, what you are eating probably is a NORMAL amount of food. You shouldn't strive to overeat like everyone else does in a restaurant. What you're doing is great, and you should be proud of yourself! BTW, if you're comfortable with your current fill, I don't think you should have a problem with choking in public. I've never had that sensation in public, but I always chew, chew, chew. I know sometimes it's hard when you're with friends and they want to talk to you, but I've grown a custom to it. Even my friends who don't know I'm banded know that I take a long time to chew, and respect that. I'm not going to hurt myself as to not be rude. I either cover my mouth and say what I have to say, or put up my finger in a 'one moment' gesture. They get it. No one has changed how they interact with me. I take a while to eat, and I chew a lot. I say that it's part of my weight loss strategy (not a lie!), and no one questions me about it They're all cool with it.

Thanks so much 2muchfun! I still have to update my after! I'm about 20~25 lbs heavier in that photo And yeah, sometimes I just lurk around and post once in a blue moon Also, going to second on that pressure cooker! They work wonders

So since being banded 2 1/2 years ago I've slowly made small changes in my life. From the way I eat, to the type of food I eat, and the way I treat my body. Now, my husband and I have switched to an all natural, organic diet. Besides my birth control pill, everything I eat, drink, or medications I used to rely on, I've found an organic natural solution to. I of course have occasional slip ups (it's hard to avoid living in such a processed world), but when my husband and I decide to get pregnant I will be a pregzilla LOL. There will be no wiggle room for mess ups Part of this lifestyle change has lead me to an interest in all natural, at home birth. I don't want meds at all. I know some women reading this are probably shaking their heads because I haven't felt the pain of childbirth yet. The female human body was built to handle childbirth, and that's all I need to know. I don't need to have anymore unnatural products in my or my baby's system. So, has anyone here done natural, at home birth before? I've read up on a few ladies here who have done all natural at a birthing center. I'm assuming the band didn't have any impact? Or was it hard for you to find a midwife? Thanks!

I'm pretty surprised by some of the responses. Even foods that my doc told me I might have trouble eating (like chicken breast, breads, etc) I can eat. It might not be the most pleasant experience, but I can sure eat it! I do avoid chicken breast, but sometimes I do want to to eat that piece of bread or enjoy a pancake I make sure to never have any super dry lean ground beef. I know it's it's not as healthy, but I'm eating much less of it, so I think that's just fine. I have beef all the time. I order burgers without buns at restaurants, I buy thin steaks and chop it up into small pieces. I've never had any problems with beef. I've had my band now for 2 years and almost 8 months and I've only gotten seriously stuck, to the point of throwing up only once...and that was towards the beginning of my journey There is a learning process with the band They key is to just always chew, eat slowly and enjoy. I've lost over 120lbs, so don't get discouraged! The band was the best choice I ever made And I happily say that I usually enjoy hamburger meat at least once a week I just love it too much!

What HealthyNewMe said is what my dietitian said too unfortunately...Steph you and I probably had very similar journeys since we had the same starting weight. My goal though has always been to be 145, which is the 'normal' weight for my height. I work out about 5 times a week, intensive workouts and I can maintain my weight even with eating garbage. My husband and I usually lose about 1-2 lbs a week (we're both bandsters btw), but that's while eating healthily throughout the week, cheating a bit on the weekends (maybe 2-3 meals) here and there and sticking to our workouts. This past month we ate garbage non stop because he was going through midterms, and I was having a pretty stressful time at work so we were eating out almost everynight. I'm glad to say that within those 3+ weeks we were eating garbage, we maintained our weight. And I'm talking pizza hut, doughnuts, you name it. We ate it LOL. I mean, obviously our portions were much smaller than pre surgery, but still, it's pretty bad for us. I think I had like 4 slices of thin crust pizza in a sitting and he had 6. I still have no idea how we did it. We usually eat organic, raw foods LOL so we were pretty ashamed. Been back on the bandwagon for 8 days now! Hope to go back to losing instead of maintaining

Aww, well that's OK. Everyone has to do what works best for them. To be honest, I very rarely smoked that first year after my surgery. After I felt more comfortable and knew how to eat properly I started up again. I still don't regret it. Still loosing weight and still vaping 3-4 times a week! Only 24 more lbs to go I'm so late Hun, how have you been I'm doing ok think I will puff my last puff today which I should have had weeks ago I'm having the sleeve.

Sure thing RB! Glad I could make you feel better about it! I'm about 2 1/2 years almost to the day of my surgery. Don't be nervous about it! My husband and I both did our surgeries together and we regret nothing!! It's literally changed our lives! I did the band, so it's not as fast in the weight loss department as the other two. Also doesn't help that I lost my health insurance 3 months after my surgery I had to pay for fills out of pocket, so I rarely did them unfortunately. By now I've found my 'sweet spot' but due to my circumstances it took me a little longer than other people The best part of the band is that it really shows you how to eat, which I think the other surgeries don't, not that you can't learn how to on the others! I just think it's a good trade off for not loosing the weight as fast as the other surgeries. You eat something like pancakes or bagels, and your body just thinks "Wow, that was a really unpleasant experience...I think I'm satisfied with the 2 bites I had". I used to love pancakes but now I'm never really in the mood for them, and if I have them, I wont even finish one. It's kinda like that feeling you get after eating too much of a food you like, throwing up, and not wanting to eat it again for sometime. I'm not sad at all for my lack of interest in pancakes anymore...It's weird how the band re-wires your brain. With that I've become very aware of my health. I eat very clean, whole foods, and exercise at least 4 times a week. So since I changed my lifestyle I decided to tweak my smoking habits too, which is why I have those recipes. I also switched last year to using a vaporizer exclusively. You can find some decent ones online for like $40! The benefit is that you're not burning the weed so you don't get any carcinogens from the burning plant matter nor the burning bleached white paper. You only get vapor from a vaporizer because the weed is being heated to release the THC but not burning. It goes down smooth, and it hasn't effected me while I'm at the gym. And I do intense workouts, so I can assure you it's easy on the lungs! Which surgery are you doing RB?

Well what foods are they? Sometimes it's a matter of just switching it up to something a little bit more 'band friendly'. For example I have issues eating chicken breast, so I switched to eating chicken thigh. It's usually not as dry, and although it has a few more calories due to the slightly higher fat content, it's really not that big a difference nutritionally. I also have problems eating broccoli and asparagus because they don't break down all that well even after constant chewing. I've just stuck to eating leafy greens instead, like spinach, kale, chard, watercress, etc. They're much better for you anyway

It could also be the type of food you're eating! There are just some foods that go down easy and others I avoid like the plague. No matter how much I chew these foods, they always go down in an uncomfortable way.

There are lots of ways to help with the munchies! I probably would avoid smoking while you're healing just because you don't want to put your stomach through anything crazy in case you DO overeat. I tend to look go for easy to make, filling, low call foods when I have the munchies. Most of the time you just want flavor in your mouth or something to much on, it doesn't have to be doritos lol! I actually like making one of the recipes from my pre-op surgery (with a small twist) which was a chicken broth Soup. 1 Bullion cube, spices of your choice (I use all natural adobo, paprika, a pinch of salt, a dot of olive oil, boil and stir). It's barely any calories (maybe 10-15 cal?), and when you are high it tastes like it came from a restaurant. Another thing I like to do is baby carrots or celery with hummus or some Peanut Butter, just make sure to portion out while still sober I also like taking frozen fruits and throwing into my blender to make gelato The #1 thing is to make sure you make smart choices before you smoke and if you're with friends explain your situation, and ask them to help you out if they catch you over eating. I've also written letters to my high self while sober As long as you're responsible before hand, you should be fine

I'm 26, live in Queens, my husband and I are about 2 years post op. I've lost about 100, hubby's lost about 120, and we still got 50 more pounds to go each! There's a lot of us here in NYC, wish there was a meetup event or something for all of us to hang out at :/ We could all swap surgery stories, recipes, give food and exercise tips, etc.

Thanks for the support Chicago Rose I take in MAJOR protein! That's why I worry. I'm having a phone call with the Nutritionist this afternoon, so I'm hoping she can give me some advice. I'll give you a sample of what a normal day is: Breakfast - (Eating from 6:30am to about 11:30am) - coffee, no sugar, 1 serving of natural bliss creamer - 35 cal - Half a builder Protein bar - 135 cal, 10g protein WORKOUT - Cytosport whey Protein shake, made with almond or skim milk, small handful of fruit, and some greens (like Watercress) - about 240ish (depending what I put in), 28 g protein - The other half a builder Protein Bar - 135 cal, 10g protein - Cup of coffee, 1 serving natural bliss creamer, 2 sugars (the only time I allow myself sugar!) - 65 cal lunch and Snacks - (12:00pm - 6:00pm) - Sandwich, 2 slices of cold cut (ham, turkey or prosciutto), 2 slices whole wheat bread, 1 slice american cheese - about 285 cal, 20g protein - Reduced Fat String Cheese - 60 cal, 8g protein - 6 Almonds - 40cal, 1.5g protein - Green tea - 0 cal dinner (7-9 PM depending when I get home). Always some sort of protein, chicken, pork, turkey, fish, bison, beef, lamb, etc. We usually try and eat red meat no more than 2 times a week, and if we do eat more than that, we'll chose a leaner red meat like bison. We always do about 4-6oz. Sometimes we'll cook it with veggies, mushrooms, etc, but those are also low cal. If we are SO hungry we have to have dessert, we do 1 spoon of Peanut Butter (about 100cal, 2g protein) or we have a small fruit (like an apple). I think my biggest downfalls are that I don't get enough veggies, and that I eat dinner rather late, but I can't really help it. Work ends at 6PM, takes me an hour to get home...and well, we rarely leave at 6PM anyway LOL so sometimes I'm just getting home at 8, have to cook, etc, and now I'm having dinner at 9pm, going to bed at 10:30-11pm

I don't know if this helps, but I had a similar discussion with my nutritionist. Basically I eat no more than 1,200 a day, I may go up to 1,400 on workout days, but not always. I know for sure because I journal everything I eat. I exercise 4 times a week for and hour each time doing those intense boxing/kickboxing classes at Title Gym. Those are the one's they advertise that you'll burn 1,000+ cal a day, you box/kickbox, weight train, calisthenics, aerobics, etc. It really is a great workout, better than anything I got with a personal trainer! So I wasn't understanding why the math wasn't working. A pound is 3,500 cal, I'm eating less than half of that, plus burning off another 1k or so. I weigh about 195 currently, and I remember weighing that much in Highschool, I told the nutritionist that I could eat like a whole pizza pie and not gain anything, and if I dieted for a week I'd lose like 10 pounds. I just thought it must be an age thing. Although she said age could be a factor, the biggest factor is the weight loss. Our body craves sugar, salt, etc. It wants to be a glutton, and it wants to be the way it was before. I used to weigh 100 lbs more than what I weigh now, so my body is working as a 195lb person who has lost 100lb instead of a person who just weighs 195 lbs. It still doesn't really make too much sense to me, but that's what she said, and that's where I am, and that's why she says it's harder to lose weight now. I'm busting my chops at the gym and pretty much never touch any 'bad foods'. I don't understand why I'm losing so slowly. It sucks.

I've been losing weight while still smoking and I've been having no problems. I usually make a pact with my husband to eat x amount of food (which is usually our normal amount of dinner). We might add in 1 piece of fruit for dessert if we're really craving, but we don't go out of control. We never smoke and eat when it's not meal time, as to not eat twice. We also actively shame each other LOL. If we're really craving something bad, we say "Adrian (our boxing coach) will be really disappointed in you if you cheat!". The shaming always works Even if we can't remember the last 5 seconds, we always remember Adrian!!! LOL!! The thought of letting him down is more than we can bare. Best advice is to not even have bad food around. The last thing I want to eat when I have the munchies is spinach...but hey, if I have to, at least I'm eating spinach There's never any typical junk/high calorie food in my house ever, chips, crackers, soda/juice, Cookies, etc.

I'm not here to start a political debate or argument so I hope the posters on this thread stick to the topic! The fact of the matter is, in several places in the USA weed is now legal, and in many other places it's decriminalized, and statistically people with bands will live in said areas. OK, so now that that is out of the way, what are your tips and tricks to keep the munchies in check? Please share your ideas! I usually: - Pre-portion out foods before getting high - Try and make good choices for comfort foods. For example I like savory and sweet foods when I'm baked, so I prepare things like meat and a pre-cut fruit for dessert. Sometimes if I'm craving ice cream, I throw berries and mango into a blender with a tsp of sugar and almond milk. It's amazing! - Make a note to yourself while sober to remember NOT to overeat! You don't want to undue all your hard work from the week. - Eat extra slow...now that I don't eat slow now Hope to hear some good ideas! And for those health nuts (trust me I am one!) I use a vaporizer and it is a very casual habit of mine (not that I think frequency matters).