dreamers

I am getting banded tomorrow! I can't believe it's here... Although nervous about the unpleasantries of surgery, I am ready for the first day of my new life. I did a little alarmed though when the nurse told me bring loose pants cos i will be huge and puffy from the air they use to pump you up during surgery.... Is it that bad? I understand that is why you get gas pain etc, but will I be waking around like michelin man? It's hard enough being large without them making you larger haha. Anyone got any advice on what to expect in that sense? How long until you deflate? I have a heat pad and Gas X ready for gas pain.

I'm almost 2 weeks post op... I feel like i'm basically 100% recovered on the outside. Functioning like normal. Light walking, house work, sleeping good (finally).... i lost 10 lbs since my surgery date.... now i am having major trouble stopping at a cup of food per meal. I am in 'bandster hell' alright. The tiny amounts of mushy food (i'm in mushy stage) is not keeping me full for long at all... i just had a cup of lentil Soup... then had another cos i was staaarving. I feel very full now, and i know that a)this feeling wont last long i shouldn't be feeling this full! It's a no no! I haven't been overeating everyday only Yesterday and today. I don't want to continue this trend cos i don't wanna stretch my stomach.. Being an emotional eater i reached for the ice cream today cos i was stressed.... god, this isn't easy. I drink loads of Water but that only stops the stomach grumbles for like 20 mins or so.... Any advice on how to deal with the hunger in bandster hell? Apologies if this is a common question...

Thanks Floridays, it's good to know with some effort and 'training', it will be easier as time goes by. I can't wait until its second nature.

I threw out the ice cream and nutella (dangerous) and i went for a 65 moderate paced walk on an incline and burned 350 calories! I feel like i made an effort to 'undo' today in order to get rid of the guilt (you know how sometimes it's the guilt alone that can send you on a downward spiral) and tomorrow is a new day. I didn't much like the feeling of fullness, i must admit it felt wrong. It got me paranoid and distraught about stretching my new expensive pouch... Thanks everyone, you guys are really supportive for coming on here and helping us newbies. It def takes focus. Cheers

Hey, Let me clarify...I say mushies, but my surgeon had me on 'soft' foods day after surgery. Lentils are in the diet plan from my NUT for day after surgery along with poached eggs, tuna, chicken etc....

I was banded dec 10th, 2012.... my hair is very thin and dry, so any loss would freak me out. If i start biotin now will that help?

Hey guys, do you use My fitness pal? If you have a smartphone it's handy cos you can punch your food into it right as you eat it. My NUT told me between 40-60 grams of Protein is acceptable, and i find that very easy. Even when i couldn't eat mushy food (i just started mushies a few days ago) i found it pretty easy. Here is an example menu of what i ate. Breakfast Svelte 'Hello beautiful' choc Protein shake = 15g protein lunch smoothie made in blender: 1 cup fat free milk, 1/2 banana, 1tbsp smooth Peanut Butter, 1 scoop 100% whey Protein powder (vanilla) = 35g protein dinner Same as b.fast Thats 65 grams of protein already and only 864 calories. I would even ad a little more PB or something to get to the minimum 1000 calories. (a lot of people loose faster if they don't go into starvation) As i progress into mushy food i am replacing shakes with real food such as canned tuna w/mayo, poached egg w/ mozz cheese, refried Beans w/ low fat ricotta + avo.... and i am still reaching my minimum of 40g protein and staying between 1000 - 1200 cal I have kept the banana, PB + whey protein shake cos it's my biggest source of protein for the day which is handy and keeps me super full. Hope this helps!!

I got banded on Monday 10th Dec and so far thanks to this forum, no real surprises. My NUT and Dr's office have me on mushy/soft food right away for 4-6 weeks. Obviously they said to take it slow and get fluids and protein first, then asap move on to mushy protein. My Dr's don't think it's necessary to be on a liquid diet for an extended period of time post op. (they are the highly reputable and amongst the top 5% in the country so i trust them) So my problem is, there is NO WAY i'm ready to eat anything solid or mushy. I slowly sip protein shakes/protein smoothies i make and it takes me about 45 mins with slow sips and breaks. I feel a tightness in my chest when i sip these thick fluids. I still have some gas in my chest too... I have 2cc in an 11cc band. Is this cos i am only 4 days out and still very swollen inside? I'm starting to feel hungry and shakes aren't cutting it, they pass right through. Also i don't want to rely on shakes for protein, i want to do as advised and get nutrients from food. Can you guys share your experiences with how long until you could tolerate things like poached eggs/tuna salad/chicken salad etc etc...

I'm loving all these replies about no fills! I just got banded a few days ago and the whole thing has shocked me into a serious lifestyle change. I won't be able to eat like i used to with the band there, so i am embracing that. If anything i am so terrified of getting stuck or anything like that, i feel like i won't be doing anything silly... and i REALLY don;t want more restriction unless the scales stop completely... and even then i will try carb cycling, changes in exercise etc Good to hear from you all!

How was everyones experience with stomach bloat? I'm 2 days post op and find that very mild house tidying / organizing etc is helping me a lot with the gas. But i can see that my stomach still looks much bigger than usual cos of the swelling from gas and also from incisions. I know they say 4-6 weeks healing time, i'm just curious how everyone went with that. Thanks in advance

Thank you, i will keep that in mind! Glad to hear the bloat goes away after a week, i have to meet some people soon for an outing and wouldn't mind not wearing stretchy pants... But there is no way i'm going to force myself into constricting pants at this stage... i feel terribly bloated and stil getting my head around the whole port thing!

Thanks for the replies! Good to hear from someone in NYC using the same doc as me yay!

Also, i notice a lot of people aren;t allowed on mushy food for a while, but some are allowed right away including our doctor... How did it feel going on mushies right away? Were you able to eat much the first few days?

I meant all this too.. "If your family, grandkids, husband cannont give you 1hr to yourself, then there are bigger problems then not exercising. I find it hard to believe that you are busy every waking moment, you really do have to commit to exercise,"

I'm using Garber too. Does he do the fills himself? Was that 40lbs all after surgery or including pre op diet? I'm about a week away so i'm full of anticipation!!

There are ways to ease into it.. You can do floor type exercises like lunges, crunches, leg lifts etc etc which you can find free online and write a few down. You can also try skipping with a rope - that burns a LOT of calories. Also maybe an aerobics video. You don't need to rush into 45 mins a day, start by doing 20 mins. Then after a few weeks if you feel ok, increase that to 25, then 30 and so on. My girlfriend is a personal trainer and she often says people fail when they try to do too much too soon and can't keep up. The best success i had with working out and healthy living was doing 30 mins a day 3-4 days a week. When you aren't doing it everyday, you put in more effort when you do have to do it. The times where i was doing 1 hr a day 6-7 days a week i was completely burnt out and put off and wouldn't be putting 100% into it as it got very tedious. Especially if you aren't used to it. Some people are naturally active or come from active backgrounds so it's a different story for them Good luck!!!

She said please go easy! I wouldn't send my mother out in the cold and dark for many reasons!

Do they want you to live on Protein Shakes the rest of your life? Duh, anyone can lose weight on protein shakes.... Obviously they don't understand the problem isn't losing weight, it's living in a way where you aren't forced to live on protein shakes to maintain a healthy weight. Try and block it out and focus on your goals, they'll deal with it.

"That crazy surgery".... man it annoys me when people say it like that! To me It's MUCH crazier to threaten my health by wildly fluctuating in weight in short periods of time, binge, starve, obsess about food, take harmful diet drugs, never go out with friends (in fear of bingeing when trying to diet, or being the 'fat one') and hate myself because of all the drama.... over and over and over again. My husbands family are all skinny so when they found out at first they were disgusted and thought it was way to extreme. I decided to educate them on the procedure and talk about how it was gonna help me be healthy and they came around to it! It's worth educating your loved ones so they see it's a positive thing... but to everyone else? Tell them to buzz off.

It really touches me reading about the emotional side of things cos i know that's how i got here. Emotional eater all the way and to top it off, a really emotional person! hah! I eat for all the wrong reasons... To Celebrate, togetherness, happiness, defeat, depression, comfort... Almost every life situation has food involved. I grew up in a house where everyone was so busy that our quality time was spent around a table filled with amazing home cooked food so i guess that's the core of it. I am so disappointed in myself... i have lost a huge amount of weight 3 times in my life (got down to a bmi of 24) but always gained it back over time. That's why i am getting the lap band. Cos i either "diet" or let go completely, i don't have stability. I need to be taught how to eat all over again and not have a 'feast or famine' mentality. To everyone feeling ashamed, you are not alone. I feel it every time i walk into a room full of people, order something from a restaurant, go clothes shopping, look in the mirror, socialize.... the list goes on. Chin up guys, we are all beautiful regardless of our size. Let's just try and lose weight so we can be healthy and buy cute clothes haha WE GOT THIS.

Hi everyone, I have a helpful medical team who are a phone call away from guiding me on my path to better health through this operation. However I read many posts on this forum to educate myself on things that my medical people might leave out. It's informative and interesting to read about different experiences with all kinds of food reactions, weight loss progress (or lack of), tips, tricks and general encouragement. I do however think it is unnecessary for people to slam each other on this forum when people write in admitting to defeat, struggling with adjusting to a new life or are asking for advice that isn't necessarily 'medical' but more experienced based. Hopefully all of us at some stage had a medical team who instructed us on what to do to succeed. But stuff happens! We are all on different gears and while some people are sobered up by the concept of resorting to surgery to tackle weight loss and respond well, others may take time to adjust to the new way of living. I think it's too harsh to verbally berate someone who for eg says "i am not losing weight and i am eating ice cream..." Obviously we can all see what that person is doing wrong, but lets not forget how we got here... cos we couldn't control ourselves to the point of threatening our health and possibly our lives! So off to the surgeon to get a plastic ring placed around our stomachs to aid us in losing weight.... So let's step down from our high horses and encourage each other cos we ALL have known failure and we ALL know the lapband is an aid, not a cure all. I agree sometimes people need a bit of a wake up call, but to those who feel the need to pummel someone with negative words like "disgusting" etc... it just doesn't help. Yes this surgery and it's consequences should be taken extremely seriously, but i believe if we exercise compassion and understanding in our responses (even if you just wanna snap someone out of it!), we'll all benefit from it. If people are posting over and over with the same problems and not doing anything to change it, surely people will get tired of this and that person will stop getting responses + eventually get some kind of message. I am getting banded in 10 days and i know i will be on here with many struggles/questions/concerns and possibly a failure or few... i would love to know you guys are here to help me out and not make me feel hopeless or like some kind of loser. Having said all this, most people are extremely helpful and it's wonderful to have us all supporting each other! Cheers to everyone on making this life changing decision. Peace, love and skinny jeans hah!