PrettyThick1

When I was banded I was smoking cigs, it was risky because my doctor could have given me a test and found out about it and ruined my surgery, or worse it could have affected my outcome/health. I'm happy to say that I no longer smoke because I vape - I started out at 12mg nicotine and now I'm at 0 like you. You don't have anything to worry about, everything will be fine by vaping.

No, I haven't taken Calcium citrate in ages. Balanced Essentials does it all for me, you should find the same to be true for you.

So I quit smoking about a year ago and suddenly my green zone fill was like not being banded at all and I let it go for too long. food smells and tastes so good now and I'm loose as all get out so everything goes down. I've gained all but about 10 pounds of my weight back - I didn't know it was that bad until this morning when I had my gym orientation at work. The weird thing? My shape is TOTALLY different from what it was pre-band at about the same weight (at least I'm sexy with it this time). I'm disappointed in myself still but the fat came back differently than it was before. Anyway, I'm rededicated and waiting for my appointment on the 30th for a fill and I'm going to start working out before work or during my lunch break tomorrow. I have to start eating right again, but I know that will come with getting my fills again. Wish me luck.

I have the band and I've fallen off too. Might I suggest finding something to get you excited about eating right and getting back in the swing of things? You should try swimming and Water aerobics, if no gym offers it in your area hopefully there is a YMCA and they almost always have an indoor pool. Good luck to you!

I actually take a little more than the recommended amount - which I think is 1 cap full? I have as much as 1 1/2 to 2 cap fulls depending on how I've been eating. It won't hurt you, whatever you don't need comes out in your urine.

Spaghetti squash is a good imitation noodle.

You didn't do bad at all...try gaining 50 back in half that time. I'm going for my first fill in 18 months in a couple of weeks.

Hello everyone! It's been more than a year since I've checked in with the group and a lot has changed in my life. I've lost the job I had for more than 10 years, started at a company I've wanted to work for for a very long time but feared layoff would rear it's ugly head again and started working for another company that I've respected, admired and wanted to be a part of for even longer than the other one. In that time, I've ignored my band, didn't get fills and gained a lot of weight back. My weight gain was my fault, not the band. But I am here to get refocused, rededicated and get back on the right track again. Will you help hold me accountable?

Seeking advice from Hosts, VIP'S and Evangelists: I am 5lbs. from my goal weight and have been teetering in an 8-lb range for 3 weeks now. I'm familiar enough with my band to know that I have about a week to go and the scale is going to reflect another 10lb. loss. I can honestly say that I will be as small as I want to be 5lbs. from now. My question is: how do you enter the maintenance mode? Should I get a slight unfill now or after the next 10lb. loss I'll notice next week? My thinking was that I'd go ahead an lose the extra 5lbs. to give myself a cushion until I can find the green zone again in maintenance. What are your thoughts?

I wanted the sleeve...True Results said: you'll do fine with the band, it will be slower but you'll get to your target within 24 months. I wasn't happy with that number, but I accepted it because the band was the least invasive, reversible and if it didn't work I could always do a sleeve revision. I'm so happy to say, the band worked in half the time I was told, it wasn't nearly has difficult as I thought and I've had NO complications even after battling a stomach virus that caused me to VIOLENTLY VOMIT from below the band at least 8 times before I was able to get treatment. Say what you want about the band, this thing is amazing!

Protein shots are great - the 42g grape ones are so thick you can add them to 8-12oz Water and make it a nice fruity drink. I used unjury unflavored protein and it's everything it's cracked up to be...just don't add it to anything hot or you'll have clumps. Mix it with cold things and then heat it up instead. Unjury chicken Soup flavored protein is also very yummy! Again, mix it cold then heat it up.

Welcome Jade! This is a very caring community and you will find people who are here to help you. When we encounter Negative Nancie's and Pitiful Petes we usually bash them until they leave, so it keeps the forum pretty clean, kind and gentle. We are all fighting the same battle, there's no need for wars amongst each other.

Statistics schmatistics...I was told it would take me 24 months to lose my excess weight with the band, faster with the sleeve. I went with the band and have surpassed my goal weight by 12 pounds in 1 year and 20 days, met my goal in less than a year. Go with the procedure you feel most comfortable with and put your faith into believing you've chosen right and it's going to work to your satsifaction.

I'd rather have the surgery than to waste time and money on those dangerous drugs. I hate I didn't get my band sooner, but I'm here now and it's the best thing I've ever done for myself. I love my new body and everything it has done for me.

Been there did that for a year, had great success until it stopped working...which it eventually will. When it does your clinic will start coming up with new "cocktails" to try to achieve similar results. My experience with those "cocktails" Jittery Nervousness Irregular menstrual cycle Cranky Suicidal thoughts Other self-destructive patterns including bulimia My advice would be to avoid taking them. Phentermine was the mildest of what they gave me, but it still affected me in ways I didn't realize. I lost 60lbs, but when it stopped working I started gaining again. The "cocktails" helped me maintain the loss, but I simply got tired of taking so many pills everyday and wondered what the long term side effects would be, especially with the side effects I was already getting from them. Long story short, when I stopped pill popping I gained those 60 pounds back and they brought along 22 of their friends. Who wants to take pills for the rest of their lives? Not me! Heck, I take liquid Vitamins now because they are more like a treat for me with the band more than anything else. The only benefit I got out of the whole experience is that I wasn't required to do a supervised weight loss program before getting my band since I had gone through that ordeal. Good luck, but RUN!

I drink about that amount of coffee everyday and if I don't drink enough Water I can tell the difference. I would suggest drinking at least 12 oz of water for every cup of coffee you drink. You urine and feces are the best factors in determining if you are hydrated enough. If you urine is light (barely any color) and your feces is smooth, comes out easy and shaped like a banana, you are properly hydrated. Feces should never be hard or appear as little balls. Individual "marbles" means you are definitely dehydrated, "marbles" clumped together is a little better but you're still in need of hydration. Your feces should always sink to the bottom or it can indicate an infection somewhere in your body.

Miss Pearlie is a hot mess I tell you. My personal goal was 150, but nooooooo that wasn't HER goal and as we all know, what Miss Pearlie wants, Miss Pearlie gets. So I've quit freaking out about it and I'm just letting her do her. I'm eating just fine, drinking just fine and maintaining my normal activity level and the weight keeps coming off. Fortunately enough, it has slowed to about a pound a week which is allowing my skin to catch up with it a bit more quickly. My mother and some of my friends were freaking out because after a substantial loss, my skin sags, I look tired and aged. That has tapered off and I am now looking younger than I did before the band...which was already really remarkable. There was a time that I wanted to get a slight unfill to bring the loss to a complete stop, but after getting advice from experienced bandsters that I trust I just allowed my body to do what it would, trusting that it would stop losing when it wanted to. I am a lot less stressed out as a result and accepting each day and each new surprise as it comes. It is so weird to look at a pair of pants and say "there is no way I'm getting in those"... hold them up to me and still say "nuh, un...not gonna work", then try them on and they are a perfect fit. I have to just sit back and say "no way, I'm really THAT small?" It is shocking and I thought I was over the body dysmorphia, but I'm not quite there yet. I still see myself as chunky...everyone else sees me as skinny. At 138, I'm still way more solid than my body appears and most people think I'm around 120 / 125 at the most. I love being "little". I don't realize how little I am until someone who I thought was an average weight hugs me and they are wrapped around me. Woooooow! Anyway, I'm thrilled that this first year has been so good for me and Miss Pearlie, I'm glad I chose to get the band rather than the sleeve. It turns out it was the right procedure for me and it hasn't given me any complications, even through a horrible stomach virus which caused me to vomit from below the band several times...she's still sitting pretty and perfect. I thank God for my surgeon, I know a lot of my success can be attributed to his level of skill, expertise and his genuine care for his patients. I wish everyone had him, I honestly don't think you would see any complaints about this surgery if they were all like him.

Me and Miss Pearlie have become such a good team. It took us some time, but we finally know each other very well and have a wonderful relationship with each other. I treat her right and she keeps me in check, so I guess you could call her my BFF now. Our friendship started off kind of rocky, I mean the day after I got her I really wondered what the hell I was thinking and wishing I could rip her out of my body on my own! It was torture. She was all up in there squeezing things that hadn't been squeezed before, making me hate the sight, smell and thought of food, she didn't want me to sleep, half the time I didn't want to drink either. I hated her @$$ and wished we'd never met! Little did I know, she was just making herself at home and once she got settled we were both very comfortable. Miss Pearlie has given me quite a few surprises along the way. I mean, this girl can be a TRIP sometimes!!! She hates extreme cold, she hates extreme heat, one day she likes a food, the next she's going to hurl it back at me...I really had to figure this chick out and she's a mystery woman who doesn't reveal her secrets without a LOT of begging and pleading. Diva? No, try b!tch...but how many things are one dimensional in life? Along with her Voodoo Queen moments, Pearlie can be an angel, too! She is nice enough to let me know what she won't tolerate BEFORE I even eat it now and she's constantly looking out for my best interest while giving me amazing weight loss results. The proof is in the numbers, she has me below my personal goal and I'm still losing. She's a sweetheart for the most part and I'm so grateful for the day we met. I wish I had kissed her before she went in, had I known how wonderful of a friend she would be I would have demanded to do so. She deserves it.

Newbies often wonder: "What will I tell...", "What will______think if they knew?" From day 1 there was no hiding my decision to get the band. I was fat, sick and tired...what the hell did I care what somebody else thought about me doing something to make myself healthier? I started with my family and yeah, I got a lot of "you don't need that..." "you could die...." "the complications..." BLAH BLAH BLAH, SHUDDUP ALREADY, I'M LIVING THIS LIFE, NOT YOU! Then I told my friends, coworkers, boss, nail technician, the hoochie cussing our her baby daddy while I'm behind them in WalMart. the bank teller...like I said, AIN'T NO SHAME IN MY GAME! My mindset was that they can accept it and support me or be against it and step off. It didn't matter, I had living to do and nobody else to do it for me BUT ME. The end result: "Guuuuurrrrrllllll, your body is BANGIN'", "Damn, you look good", "Let me put some rocks in your pocket so you don't blow away", "I won't hug you too tight, I'm scared to break you", "You say your insurance covered that?" "How long was recovery", "What was your out-of-pocket", "Did it hurt", "I want to get it done, too". See 7 out of the 16 people who were DEAD SET AGAINST the surgery have either gotten WLS or are in the process (4 bands, 2 sleeves, 1 gastric). Three others are trying to convince their loved ones that they should have it done, 4 are now my biggest fans and the other two are still @$$holes who don't want to admit they were wrong about it...I quit fooling with them a long time ago anyway. I just hear how green their FAT FACES get when they hear I'm wearing a size 3/4 and I'm having a clothing "take-away" at my house to which THEY AREN'T INVITED! Don't be ashamed. You could be the inspiration someone else needs to change their lives for the better as well.

If you're craving chocolate, chances are you are magnesium deficient and because many of the foods that contain the most magnesium don't always work with the band (Beans, nuts, beef), visit your pharmacy to pick up a bottle. Cardiovascular diseases have also been linked to Magnesium deficiency, so it's a good idea to keep this little supplement on hand.

Thank you so much Bandista! You are such an awesome person, always so positive, encouraging and uplifting. Half of the battle is knowing you have support and I got that through you, @@CarolinaGirl, @@B-52, @missy and a few other excellent friends. I appreciate the messages you've sent me, the posts you've made and the advice you've shared. I hope your dreams are coming true at this very minute!

Are you taking your measurements? I lost as many inches as pounds the first few months of this journey and I KNOW there were several weeks that I didn't lose a single pound, but I lost several inches. How much do you work out? If you are strength training, you are holding up the loss. Focus on cardio only at this point. Not to be a bad influence, but I have not yet started to exercise and today makes 1 year for me. I am starting back at the gym next week to build muscle, tone and stop losing weight - none of my workouts will involve cardio - only strength training.

To be completely honest...I was completely honest, with EVERYBODY. Face it, you're about to drop a TON of weight in a short amount of time. People are going to know something is going on with you and although you might not want them to know you've had WLS, it's better than them speculating about why you are eating so little and shrinking so fast. It's a personal choice, but I don't find anything embarrassing about my lifestyle, in fact your honesty could encourage others to make the same decision. I have caused 7 people to get on the journey (4 bands, 2 sleeves, 1 gastric) because before they didn't know anyone else who had gone through it. Once they saw how well I did and continue to do, they couldn't wait to do the same.

Queenie you will! Some of us lose faster than others, just be sure not to become discouraged during your "plateaus". I encourage you to take your measurements because there are times when you THINK nothing is happening, but it is! Good luck!!!

Here I am just 2 days away from my 1 year Bandiversary and I'm confused for the first time during this journey. Why have I lost my appetite? I hate the sight, smell, taste and texture of food...having it in my mouth is TORTURE. I went through this the first couple of weeks after being banded, but should I feel this way now? I'm 8 lbs. below goal and losing more by the day. I've gone back to drinking my calories, but there's only so much of that I can take, too. Has anyone else had this issue? What did you do? I'm guessing I need another unfill (I've already taken out .5cc's) but could there be something else wrong? I'm so serious when I say food make me nauseous! Help!