Fenton

After my Weekend of Steak, I'm stalled this week. Although, to be frank, I don't know if that's because of the steak, or because I lost so much in the days leading up to the Weekend of Steak, and this is just a natural re-equilibration of whatever. I'm not worried; I'm keeping my intake low and am more active than I've been for a long while. Indeed, just yesterday, I suddenly realized that, without thinking, I'd walked to the top of a hill that had always made me puff and pant. And I hadn't noticed it at all, or even thought about having to walk up the hill. And I walked it FAST. Tomorrow is my six week week anniversary - uh, forgive me, *bandiversary*. I'm all healed, so tomorrow I'm going to start doing yoga again, something I haven't done for probably three years. Last time I did it I was about 50 lbs lighter, but the practice is fairly forgiving. We shall see!

Hey, Starbux - welcome aboard! Markella, one of the first things you'll see if you read through this thread is that different MDs have different recommendations for how long people should be on different diets. Your doctor has his reasons for recommending that particular approach with the band he's installed in you, and ideally you should try to follow his guidelines. You're out about 3 weeks now, so you've done quite a bit of healing; you probably won't damage the band. But the guidelines are, I think, as much about changing eating patterns as they are about protecting the band. Well, almost. The advantage of the liquid diet is that it is a way of resting your healing band, breaking your old bad eating habits and allowing your stomach to shrink a bit. I think a number of us, if we're worrying that we've overdone it a bit, return from time to time to the liquid diet to get back into the groove. Anyway, if you are going to eat the "wrong" things, you should try not to eat too much of them, and try not to eat them too quickly...

Man! Because of traveling a lot this year, I didn't really get any snow at all! I (heart) snow!!!

Hahaha! When you say "some cheese", how much cheese do you mean? Obviously, cheese is a high cal thing, so you know you want to keep an eye on it, but it's hardly the end of your banded life!

You're more than welcome.

I'm reading this late - but congratulations on your decision and your FANTASTIC weight loss!

BTW, I chronicled my NYU surgery and the first couple of weeks of my experience with the band in fairly extensive detail in the March 2008 Bandsters MASTER THREAD, should anyone be interested in what it's like being banded there. One thing: because of my extra-large size, I stayed the night in a stepdown ward, and was very closely monitored. I think it was the right thing medically, but it wasn't fun - particularly because the ward had only reopened the week before after being refurbished.

I live in Manhattan, near Union Square. Dr. Fielding banded me 3/6/08, and I've been feeling great and losing pretty well. I have enough restriction from the unfilled band that yesterday, when I went for a follow up visit intended for the first fill, I declined any additional restriction. I told Dr. Fielding I want to wait until I stop losing or plateau before I have a fill. He encouraged me, saying "When you wake up starving, that's when you know it's time for a fill..."

Yeah, he's a good guy - he has a band himself.

CHRISTINE! I'm happy to hang on to them for you! I'm going to be out of town this weekend, but I'll leave the case with my doorman on Friday night before I leave. Do me a favour, remind me Friday morning, just to be sure.

So, I had my First Fill session today. I went in and told the Doc I was losing well, without any limitations on the food I could swallow, and wasn't suffering from hunger. I said I felt my current level of restriction was fine, and that I didn't think I was ready for a fill yet. He agreed. He said, "I think the time you need the fill is when you wake up and you're starving. Come back in a month." And that was that. FWIW, I'm down 52 lbs since I started, down 25 since surgery on 3/6. I have the advantage/burden of starting at 473, but I'm grateful that it's making the first phase of weight loss pretty fast and easy.

So, gents, how did it go...?

Hey all. I got banded by Dr. Fielding on 3/6/08; I'm doing really well, everything went smoothly. The NYU practice is one of the busiest in the country; this can make it a pain in the neck in terms of waiting for appointments and the waiting room being crowded, but if you're a big person being operated on, you want an experienced staff, and you can't do better than the NYU people. I'm going to start a new thread to see if anyone wants to take my chocolate Royale Low Carb Slimfast Optima off my hands - free. I have five and a half 6 packs...

Oh, these are the lower carb ones, with 24 g of carbs, of which 5 g are Fiber. And I have five 6-packs, and a couple of extra cans... Who knew there was a Regional Forum?

Hmm, LD - maybe I should offer it in the April Bandsters forum, since they're all still on either pre- or post-op liquids...

I've never had jalapeno kettle chips, but can imagine that they're pretty tasty. Yesterday I had my big steak dinner; it was the most amount of calories I've had in one day in probably about two months. And I loved it. I had about 5 ounces of steak, saved another 3 oz for today (yummy breakfast), three beer-battered onion rings, three ruthlessly slaughtered and peeled baby carrots, and some bone marrow-mustard custard. I declined dessert, but the pastry chef sent Desserts anyway, and I had a variety of tastes. None of that worried me - I think the meal probably ran about 1500 cals, and earlier I'd had another 400 or so - but I wasn't pleased by the fact that I enjoyed the dinner rolls too much. Afterwards, I felt unpleasantly full. I walked a bit, and was kind of wired for the rest of the evening. I finished off the steak, leftover onion rings and carrots this morning. Today I started working out with my new dumbell set. So far so good; I'm going to try not to overdo it. My dates last night recommended a gym/personal trainer not too far from me; when I hit 375, I'll start working out with him. And today I'm going to do my best to walk a lot. I own my calorie spike from yesterday, but I'll be DAMNED if I'm going to let it affect my numbers!

Sure, bask away! Just don't convert my loss into kilos - 22kg just doesn't sound that impressive!

And I'm going to match you by losing 21 by 1 June. Actually, no; I think I'll match you by losing 22 by 1 June. That'll be a colossal feeling of satisfaction, because I'll FINALLY be under 400 lbs.

Hey, Weldon, welcome aboard! You're among friends here...

One thing that is great - a reward in its own right, really - is that I eat so much less than I used to that I'm saving a huge amount of money. Still, I am also finding other ways to spend it. For example, I used to be a chocolate bar demon, probably four a day. Now some days I take a huge detour on my walk home, and go to a chocolate boutique, and buy one or two chocolate bonbons. Since they're flown in from France each day, the cost for two small chocolates is $5.16. But damn, they're worth it!

Well, this week I passed a mini-goal - 50 pounds lost - but I didn't have a reward in mind for it. The first will be when I get below the 400 pound mark, and I have no clue what I'd decided on. The thing is, there's not much I want. A couple of tattoos, but those can wait. The social rewards I mentioned above, but, again, no real hurry. I'm going to have to dig up my list again, just to remind myself. I think that, for me, the weight loss is its own reward. I know that sounds dorky, but it's true: both the scale Victories and the Non-Scale Victories feel really great. I guess my rewards will be less "rewards" so much as recognition of another step in the right direction.

I have my fill appointment on Monday, and I think I'm going to defer the fill. I will ask the doc about the thing that's been concerning me - I'm not eating to the size of the meal, but to calorie content, and I want to make sure that's not screwing up my pouch. Although the technique that Ajoneen posted (Or was it Harley - I'm too lazy to scroll back! - I think it was Ajoneen) seemed like it might be useful. When I plateau, or start to put on weight, I'll schedule a fill, and will go on liquids for two days before and a couple of days after. Actually, at NYU, you go on liquids anyway after a fill, then mushies, then back to normal food again. Anyway, thanks to my ridiculous weight, so far the loss has been pretty painless. Moving my mountainous self across the landscape requires genuine work, and I'm keeping my calories below 1500, mostly. But tonight: STEAK! Probably my last for a while. Well, until tomorrow, when I'll have leftover steak.

Great work, Frances! You're shrinking before our eyes!

Christine! You HAVE been in the wars! I'd bet a dermatologist will be able to polish you up in plenty of time for your fill. And, on the plus side, having a lousy appetite right now is a help - indeed, if I hadn't lost my appetite due to a cold during the run-up to getting banded, I don't think I'd have lost as much weight. Yeah, I know, faint consolation. But this little setback will soon be behind you...

Yeah - if you feel gas pain, get moving. It helps with the gas, and it burns energy... Welcome aboard!