Summerrain

Hi all, haven't been on in a few months, it's been a roller coaster ride since mid April. My family and I went on vacation first week of April, the week after we get home my lower back went on me then that progressed to mid back pain then my neck, guess I overdid the walking that week we were away. I was walking no less than 8 hours a day because we all walked everywhere and I was so proud I could keep up. Then in the middle of it ally mum had heart failure which resulted in her having a pacemaker put in, she's fine now and I'm back to normal thank goodness. Anyways 2nd July was my band anniversary and my goal was to melt away 100 pounds of fat, I somehow managed to achieve that without being able to exercise the last few months. It's been harder to shift the pounds without my daily walks but I stayed strong and determined to reach my personal goal. I would have lost much more had I been able to keep exercising but I'm still happy where I am today compared to a year ago. Some days were tough being on meds that made me want to graze all day and believe me some days I did and my weight would be up and down a few pounds but without my band I probably would have stacked on more weight. I've had some amazing reactions from people I haven't seen in a year, in a way I was proud and in another way also disgusted that I had let myself get to where I was when I started my new lifestyle with this band. I started at 366 pounds and today I'm at 260 pounds. I still ha e a way to go to get to goal and now that I can exercise again I'm going to melt the rest of my fat away. This last year has been a journey filled with fear, confusion, frustration and a huge learning experience living with my band. It's now a part of me every day and so much easier a year down the track. To those of you starting out you will go through so many emotions and roller coaster rides but know that if you work your tool you will be rewarded. You will have days or weeks of frustrating plateaus and that's also normal but if you persist those scales will move, for some slower than others but we are all different. As soon as I get a current picture I will post my before and now pic so hopefully it will encourage those that are starting out or at a frustrating stage. I know a lot of the before and after pics have been a huge encouragement to me this past year. I wish everyone the best in their journey and those that I have come to know on this forum this past year continued success.

To be honest I haven't had that full feeling since before being banded, you know that feeling like you're going to explode because you ate too much. I eat till my hunger goes away so I never feel full but satisfied and no longer wanting nor having an interest in continuing to eat but also I am in the greenzone and have been so since last October. Before being in greenzone I would just eat my allotted amount which was no more than one cup of food three times per day and only eat when hungry, the days I would be extra hungry I just drank tea or Water or go for walks or distract myself with other things. So full to me now feels like I felt before I started eating but satisfied with no hunger feelings if that makes sense.

If I remember correctly it took a good month for all my bloating to go away and in that time no matter what I drank or ate made me feel as if I had sat down to a banquet. Give it time and everything will go down and you will start to feel normal again with no bloating. For some it resolves much quicker than others but it will get better.

I remember about two years ago I had gone to the local butchers to get meat for our dinner that night, parked my car and went and ran my errands. When I got back to my car another car had parked a little too close to mine and even though I could open the door I couldn't get into my car, I tried for a few mins then gave up in embarrassment, I'm sure people noticed. I even tried to get Into the passenger's side and climb over but couldn't even manage to do that. I was so humiliated and had to wait outside my car for a good hour in scorching heat till the owner of the other car returned and drove off. I was close to tears with being angry with myself and humiliation. After that incident I always made sure I parked where there was lots of room. Even today when I'm in that situation I cringe thinking OMG what am I going to do but it's no longer a problem I actually can get into car if another has parked too close. Whilst on holidays recently we had to go through a few turn styles and I was already in a pannick that I'd get stuck but I didn't, I walked through like every other normal person walking through. Only once someone yelled out why don't you go to weight watchers but I pretended I didn't hear them and cried inside so noone else would notice.

Lol then no I have no idea about kaiser insurance!

Beautiful lady, you look amazing and I love my band too!!

You look great and have come a long way. Remember slow and steady wins the race, this is a life time change. Keep up the great work, huge difference in the pics!!

Nice NSV and maybe take your daughter to some seminars, she is seeing what you're going through. Ask her if she would be able to deal with it all. And yes if you can help her get to a healthy weight at this young age then it's a great idea. Or maybe ask her to work with you, follow what you are eating and exercise together then if she has really given it her best shot and didn't succeed help her look into banding. My daughter is 15 and my sons 15 and 18 they are all within a healthy weight range. From the day they were born I made it my goal for them to never have weight issues ( highly likely as I did have issues). I kept them active from a really young age and encouraged them to find a sport they loved and would stick too. My daughter choose gymnastics ( been doing it since she was six) she has a beautiful slender strong body, my sons choose rugby and archery ( both fit and muscular), I also cooked every meal, rarely bought them take out and always encouraged them to eat fresh fruit, it's paid off thank god even though I didn't follow my own rules. Lately my daughter has started nagging me about buying her some skinny tea program to loose weight. I keep telling her no and to not start with fad diets ( she doesn't need to loose anything but her friends are all doing it), I keep reinforcing that she needs to eat good Protein, vegetables and hardly any processed foods as she needs good clean foods for the 12 hours of hard training she does every week and if she starts these stupid fad diets her sport will suffer and she can start to mess up her metabolism ( what happened to me over the years). Teach your daughter what she should and shouldn't be eating , I know she is old enough to know but we tend to loose the idea of what's good and what's not, work together as each others support. Best wishes to you both.

Hmmm took me longer than a few days to feel normal again, more like a good month. I used to get the dizziness also and for a good three weeks it felt like an elephant sitting on my chest till ally swelling went down and I healed. All normal some heal quicker than others.

Ouch I remember hurting when I woke as I would flip onto my tummy throughout the night. I started to put a pillow in front of my tummy so if I'd flip over I'd have the pillow as support. Hopefully your pain med will kick in quickly and you should settle, you're just going to be very tender till healing is complete.

You're a very pretty lady Donna, you are looking great and can certainly see a huge difference with the pics! Keep up the great work oh and I love your black and white top.

I see a big difference also, looking good!

At this stage just light walking anything else could cause pain.

I've eaten kaiser rolls, just had to go very slow though to avoid getting stuck. Actually this type of bread with the hard crusts are much easier to eat than the soft gooey breads. And if you can tolerate it every now and then is fine.

Full and stuck are two very different things. You can keep eating beyond the twenty min mark and you will feel overly full. As soon as hunger goes away we need to stop ( satiety) usually twenty mins or less. Stuck is swallowing too big a bite and it won't pass through, it just sits there like a rock till you either pb or eventually the food passes, not fun.

Sorry you're going through this but this also proves that even if you get a fill under fluro it's not necessarily a good idea to have such a large fill in one go, everything can look fine at the time but eventually the swelling kicks in and that's why it's better to have much smaller fills to creep up to greenzone as you are closer to it. As I got closer to my greenzone it took four small fills to put in 1 cc over a month and then I hit the zone. Hopefully you settle down quickly.

I don't see why not if you can limit yourself to a very small amount, my belief is if you crave something ( good or bad) just have a small amount and be done with it otherwise you will cave in in a not so good way if you constantly crave a food then overdo it. I've eaten probably a handful in the ten months I've been banded and they weren't as good as I remembered.

Donna the greenzone for me personally is not waking up hungry, no interest in food 24/7, no wanting to snack at night time, no cravings, only eat when hungry and that happens about twice a day, I know it's not enough to do that every day so I make sure I eat a piece of fruit either before lunch or between lunch and dinner or after dinner, just when I'm in the mood. Also I go easily 5 to 6 hours between meals before I get a little bit hungry. Also you know how you walk around shopping centers through the food courts in the past I'd float around with all the smells now it doesn't even bother me. After I've eaten dinner I have no desire to want anything else either so it's taken the night time munchies away. I'm not that restricted that I can't eat anything, and there was a stage about 8 weeks ago I was getting stuck a lot too but I had to take even smaller bites to adjust.

Personally I don't wait a full minute with my softer Proteins but I do with meat and things like broccoli because for me they take a big longer to pass through. If I need to drink with my meals I sip but follow the one minute rule between bites and sipping ( my instructions I'm allowed to sip with meals). When im not eating I just drink as normal as Water passes through quickly for me.

Congrats on being banded, personally I had no hunger till about the fourth week, then hunger returned with a vengeance. I had 4.2 cc's put in my band on day of surgery. We are all different some have the hunger return earlier than others. Keep your walking up as that will aid your recovery and best wishes to you in your new journey!

As someone else said its not a lack of Protein. It's your body reacting to the weightloss. I eat way more protein now on a daily basis than I used to pre banding, I've taken Biotin form day one and exactly five months after being banded I started with the hair loss. I remember years ago going on a high protein diet and exactly five months into it I had the same issue. I'm still taking biotin daily and switched to a shampoo called Nioxin which is apparently for thinning hair. Have been using it about two weeks now, haven't noticed a difference with shedding but the condition if my hair is much nicer ( very expensive too). As my doctor said its part of loosing huge amounts of weight and will settle down, it had better before I go bald, my hair was thin to begin with!

I was truly sickened when I woke to this news this morning. Prayers to all the injured and affected by this horrible crime.

Hi there, everyone has given you wonderful advice. You are doing the right thing by researching and go to those seminars they are really helpful. I remember being bigger in my teens and doing what silly teens do I starved myself to loose weight, I managed to loose so much, the unhealthy way, and I got down to 125 pounds. I loved being slim and being able to wear all the trendy clothes and look good and loved the male attention being so slim but within six months of getting to that weight I was struck down with a severe case of glandular fever which had me bed ridden for nearly three months I was so sick, it Took me a good year to get my health back. After that it was constant yoyo dieting and two pregnancies my weight problem got out of control. I spent nearly all my 40s in a depressed heap mainly because of my weight. At 48 I finally had enough and I needed medical help to get this weight off, I did a lot of research and it took me a good year before I finally decided to get the lapband, in that year I tried and tried to stick to a diet but kept failing. I decided on lapband because I was scared shitless to have my insides cut away and knew if anything went wrong with the band it was reversible. I was also afraid of failing with the band. As my surgery date got closer I was excited but still afraid hoping I had made the right decision. I remember being wheeled into surgery and kept saying to myself what the hell are you doing to yourself. Once it was done I was so relieved and I found every bit of willpower in me and with determination I stared my journey and ten months later I'm the happiest I've been in a long long time and I'm only a few pounds away from loosing 100 pounds. My quality of life has improved and I actually feel younger than I am with the energy I have again. You're young, yes it's a big step but you have a wonderful opportunity to get healthy at a young age and have an active life before you get to 30 or 40 etc and have put on more weight and regret not doing it years earlier. Being so young it is a long time to have the band but think of the health benefits loosing your excess weight. I wish you all the best in whatever decision you make. Oh and one really important thing you need to research is the aftercare you will be provided, it's very crucial you get excellent aftercare to help you succeed.

That smile says it all missy!! Amazing and if you don't mind me saying so you look so much younger!

You all look amazing, love looking at before and after pics!