Lola Granola

I wish I had an answer for you. I have not had my band yet, but I did have a really nice woman send me a private message describing "stuck" episodes. I worry about that very thing, myself. At any rate, I sort of got the idea that maybe it is best to go back to liquids for a short while to let the irritation/swelling go down. It won't make you "unstuck" right away, I don't think, but it is supposed to help. I just wish that I could tell you for sure that this will help you to eventually find relief. The gal I chatted with sure seemed to think it didn't hurt anything. That is for sure! Best of luck to you.

I have not had my surgery yet, but I have had something called a "belt lipectomy". I went from 130 to 230 while pregnant with my oldest daughter and have stuggled with losing and gaining the same 30 pounds ever since then (19 years now). My skin is really crappy.... very little elasticity. At any rate, after I lost 30 pounds (the first time) my skin was not too bad, but after having done that a few more times.... the skin just hung there like an "apron" around my waist. I was getting weird skin infections under the flap of skin due to "hanging" nature of the skin and wanted to have it removed. My insurance considered it to be "cosmetic" while my doctor considered it to be "reconstructive". Long story short, I ended up getting some financing and paying for the surgery myself. It was not cheap, but it was doable. I think I paid about $140 per month for about 6 years. I was really glad that I did that. I do worry about what will happen if I really do manage to lose the 90 or so pounds that I still have to lose. The doctor claims that I could still have that same surgery again and that it is not a problem to do the procedure more than once over a life time. We'll see how that all goes.....

Oh..... Good luck in surgery, by the way!! I bet you are all finished by the time you get around to reading this!! Please let us all know how things went!!

Slim Time is sold by Minogue Medical and is supplied to them by a company called "Bartiatrix". It is supposed to be formulated specifically for those who are on what is called a "very low calorie" diet for weight loss before bariatric surgery. I got the idea to compare the nutrition information for Slim Time with Ensure because it is also often "prescribed" by doctors (although for different reasons). At any rate, I was surprised to see just how close the nutrition information really was. Three shakes per day works out to be something on the order of 700 calories. I am supposed to eat steamed veggies with a low glycemic index to fill in the remaining 200 calories that I am supposed to be getting during the 2 week pre-op diet. No butter or sauces..... yuck!! hahaha.... I have asked the clinic about Ensure and am waiting for them to get back to me. I will soon see what they have to say, I suppose. I suspect that Slim Time will be preferred (I think it is thicker), but that Ensure will be an acceptable substitution. md finch.... I would be so happy if I lost a little on the pre-op diet!! I am glad to hear that you did so well.

Volume for volume, the Ensure had 5 fewer calories, 2 fewer grams of protein, 2 fewer grams of carbohydrate and the same amount of fat. The vitamins and other nutrients were almost identical, as well.

That sounds terrible!! Does this happen often???

Okay.... what is sliming? I have read several posts with this term in them. We need a glossary of lap band terms at the front end of this forum, I think!!!

SKIN!!! Totally forgot to comment on that!!! I was 130 before I got pregnant with my first daughter. I gained about 100 pounds while I was pregnant and only managed to lose about 40 of that. I had a huge flap of skin for a stomach.... something the doctor called an "apron". At any rate, I had to have it removed for health reasons (infections in the skin and gross stuff like that). I am much heavier now than I was then, and I STILL have hanging bits of skin here and there. I think that whomever it was that said it previously is bang-on about it being a genetic thing. I have really crappy skin..... My sister-in-law is larger than me and has also had 2 kids. She doesn't have a single stretch mark on her entire body!!! If she lost a bunch of weight I bet she would still have nice tight skin..... I'm totally jealous of people with skin like that.....

Pudgy Yoga Chic!!! That is G-R-E-A-T!! I should've been Pudgy Aerobics Instructor!!! You sound so much like me. I am 5'5" (just learned that today... thought I was 5'6" ) and weight 221. I have lost 4 pounds since taking out my loan to pay for my surgery..... totally made me lose my apatite!! hahaha My surgery is scheduled for May 25th, so I just recently joined the forum. At any rate, I have the same thing. I have told very few people what I am getting ready to do. However, I have also had a few mixed reviews. One gal was totally shocked because she didn't think that I was "fat enough" (seriously, how friggin' fat do you really "need" to be, right?). The other persont that I told thought it was great. The 3rd and final person didn't think I was "fat enough", but still thought it was great. I just found out that my family doctor is pro-lap band, however. That made me feel a lot better about my choice. He was totally on board with the whole thing. I do feel "little", however when I look and see that some people have lost almost as much as I currently weigh. It makes me feel lucky to still be hovering on that line between obese and morbidly obese.....

I don't have a band yet, but I still tend to agree with Mis73's comments. I have been most successful on low carb diets in the past (although still not successful enough,... that is obviously why I am here). However, I decided to give low carb one last go before deciding to have the lap band surgery. This is something that I have noticed that I had never "really" had any "data" to support in the past..... until now. I kept a VERY elaborate spreadsheet of everything that I ate (weighed and measured everything.... NO cheating). First, I found it was difficult to eat enough calories. I was eating a lot less than I would have expected. I averaged about 1000 calories per day for a little over 4 months. I lost 5 pounds. I gave up on my diet (who the heck wouldn't, right?) and began to notice that rather rapidly dropped about 8 pounds..... doing nothing but eating a few more calories. I didn't go "hog" wild or anything and I continued to monitor what I was eating because I didn't want to start eating sweets again. I noticed that I rather modest increase of about 200 calories per day (I basically let myself have some bread) was what did it! Weird, huh? At any rate, the calories do continue to gradually increase..... I would estimate (totally scrapped the spreadsheet after 8 months) that I am right back to eating something in the neighborhood of 2000 to 2500 calories per day. Still not eating sweets, however!! I have not put the 13 pounds back on, but I am sure that it would eventually find it's way back to me.... That experiment was about all I needed to cause me to decide to have the surgery. I researched the band, decided to give a diet one last go, totally crappy results..... and LOTS of hard work..... and then I scheduled myself a date for surgery. Moral of my story..... I think that there is definately a calories in calories out component to all of this, but I do think that we can slow our metalbalism down by not eating enough. That is what my data would suggest.... at least in my case.

Honk... nice name, by the way.... I have sort of figured out the part about it being a will power diet in the begining for a lot of folks. It seems that there are others out there who report having restriction right off the bat. My doctor explained to me that it will be different for everyone, but he did mention pretty much exactly what you just said about measuring food and being prepaired to have to have some fills before you really start to notice that a lot has changed. I guess that is why it is going to be so important to keep up with the fills and to look for the signs that you need one. Right?

I just joined the site yesterday. I am going to have my surgery on May 25th. I am scared to death about not being able to eat things!!! I am scared to death about what it will feel like. I am scared to death that the whole thing will give me a huge panic attack. At any rate, enough about me.... I just posted this in some other topic in response to this gals problem with missing the way she used to eat. I know I don't know anything about any of it.... yet.... but I sort of thought this might help someone (myself included) think about what we are getting ready to do or what we may have already done. Here goes.... Me and food have a pretty dysfunctional relatinship in general, but I too wonder what it will be like to have certain items that I just can't eat.... EVER. I am getting my band in May. I have been over and over the choice for over a year now and keep coming back to the band option. I watched this youtube video by some Australian doctor called "the 8 golden rules" and thought to myself, "Self... you can do all of that.... without a $16,000 dollar leash for your out of control appatite. With that.... I decided to grab some baby forks and spoons and eat on a tiny plate following a modified version of the Atkins diet (75g of carbs per day). Here I am, about a year later, still eating on the tiny plate with the tiny spoon, but I have not been able to keep up the full low carb routine on my own and....drum roll..... there is nothing stopping me from filling that little saucer over and over and over and over!!! I have managed to lose about 10 pounds in the last year, but that is all. I think the idea with the band is supposed to be that "we" have a maladaptive way of eating and "we" need something to help us out. I have been trying to think of it like a governor on a vehicle. The governor keeps the vehicle from exceeding a certain speed.... no matter what. The band is supposed to keep us from overeating.... no matter what (more or less). You still get to drive your vehicle, you just can't go fast. You can still eat food, you just can't be a total hog about it. The governor keeps us from getting a moving violation and the band keeps us from developing obesity related illnesses. I just keep reminding myself of this......

Wow! I had not expected so many people to have so much to say! I think that I have had almost every thought and feeling that I have read in this post at least once or twice. I teeter back and forth with telling everyone and telling no one.... then telling 2 or 3 people, etc. I sort of like the "need to know" basis idea for now. I think I have similar fears about failure. I look at all these posts on this forum and it seems like every single person on here (save for newbies like many of us) has managed to lose something in the neighborhood of 100 pounds (give or take a little). I want it to work, but I keep thinking.... what if it doesn't? I sometimes feel like that is just how my luck rolls..... I actually think that I will have and okay time because I do have a relatively sound diet (not that much junk at all really) and I actually used to be an aerobics instructor!!! No crap-o-la.... I just never seemed to lose any weight. That may be what worries me the most. I have put in some MASSIVE efforts over the years and have not been able to lose more than about 30 to 40 pounds. Obviously it all comes back, too!! Again, I think it all goes back to the idea that you can have to much of a good thing. Just choosing fruit and salad and lean protein is useless if you hork back 2500 calories worth of the stuff over the coarse of a day. I absolutely think failure is my biggest concern......

I have been fat all of my adult life. I had my oldest daughter when I was 18 and managed to gain 100 pounds while I was pregnant. I figured she should've weighed about 90 more pounds than she did when she was born!! At any rate, no one in my current life (apart from my 2 brothers) has ever seen me without all of the fat. I was 130 before I had my daughter and am 225 now. My goal is to get back to that weight if at all possible. I have heard some folks say that people have been worried about them, think they might be ill, etc. I just wonder how to confront situations like that (or others) without disclosing. I have arthritus in my back pretty bad, so I won't be able to play the "I went to the gym" card, but I do plan to walk and ride my bike. I guess I could just chalk it up to that.... and eating less. I actually don't have a terrible diet. I just eat to much of whatever it is that I am eating.

I like to read things like that.... I have heard a lot of people say they enjoy their food more. I am just worried that the thing(s) that I may find that I cannot tolerate will be among my favorite things and it sort of makes me feel uncomfortable. I have noticed that there are plenty of folks that seem to have very few items that they cannot eat, but there are also a fair number who have lots of things that they can't eat. Just makes me wonder what side of that fence I will land on..... I suppose I will find out before long, hey?

Me and food have a pretty dysfunctional relatinship in general, but I too wonder what it will be like to have certain items that I just can't eat.... EVER. I am getting my band in May. I have been over and over the choice for over a year now and keep coming back to the band option. I watched this youtube video by some Australian doctor called "the 8 golden rules" and thought to myself, "Self... you can do all of that.... without a $16,000 dollar leash for your out of control appatite. With that.... I decided to grab some baby forks and spoons and eat on a tiny plate following a modified version of the Atkins diet (75g of carbs per day). Here I am, about a year later, still eating on the tiny plate with the tiny spoon, but I have not been able to keep up the full low carb routine on my own and....drum roll..... there is nothing stopping me from filling that little saucer over and over and over and over!!! I have managed to lose about 10 pounds in the last year, but that is all. I think the idea with the band is supposed to be that "we" have a maladaptive way of eating and "we" need something to help us out. I have been trying to think of it like a governor on a vehicle. The governor keeps the vehicle from exceeding a certain speed.... no matter what. The band is supposed to keep us from overeating.... no matter what (more or less). You still get to drive your vehicle, you just can't go fast. You can still eat food, you just can't be a total hog about it. The governor keeps us from getting a moving violation and the band keeps us from developing obesity related illnesses. Maybe you just need a montra to tell yourself when you are having these feelings?? It couldn't hurt to try.

I just decided to get the surgery, as well. I am really nervous about what it will be like to swallow things. I have a little bit of an anxiety thing . It looks like my surgery day is going to be on May 25th. Anyone know why my ticker doesn't show up??