Jack

welcome to LBT re: "at last i discovered that i want to be strong from inside before start any step to lose the wight" I agree. We all have to learn how to be strong whether we have outside support or not. cheers on your journey

great comments here. RE "my fear is without restriction " my fear is to over eat in spite of restriction'' re: "food addictions" while I believe those DO exist, I also believe there is another even more compelling addiction...I'll call that one "over eating addiction" as no specific food is involved....the mechanics of gulping/swallowing mightily and washing it all down with some high calorie liquid regardless of 'hunger' is a "Behavioral Addiction". Proper restriction requires slowing down the eating cycle and requires actual chewing. Many Bandsters report they never actually learned to chew their food. I certainly developed ways to avoid such dreary and boring process. We all deal with various segments of the same problem. "Morbidly Obese" seems to have as many reflective surfaces as the mirrored ball on the dance prom floor. Reading the ongoing efforts of others helps me control the periodic increasing furvor of my own Belly Beasts.

re: "I can eat whatever I want and however much I want. It's disgusting actually" I recognize this Beast as it has attempted to visit me on occasion. The operational reality I've found, is that each day requires my attention to the real basic truth that I can not conveniently ignore. It works well enough to walk past these freaky events you outline. My method is to continue to recognize the goal of eating to be 'not hungry'. All else falls into line for me, when I activate that little mental program, that unless 'hunger' physically exists, I won't eat. Perhaps my situation is different from yours.....I spent many decades without being aware of the fact there is supposed to be a mechanism that tells us when to eat and when to stop. I had developed behavioral anomalies that 'eating' was controlled by outside factor, such as 'Is it gone?'; " can I tamp any more down with my eating shovel?" and "no one will notice"....etc. You've got the intellectual awareness to identify your behavior. Normos eat when they are hungry. Then they stop. We of the Tribe of the Morbidly Obese eat in spite of being hungry, and we don't stop. The next step is ACTION to change that behavior....which of course became a habit long ago. There's a point where our Rational Mind must subdue our Irrational Belly. You can do it. cheers on your journey

yes, it's almost 'odd' to be merely "obese" rather than "morbidly obese"....a welcome demotion I happily embraced.....moving down into the 'overweight' category remains somewhat elusive yet I continue with my daily action plan. cheers to all of us

" Celebrate in the acheivement thus far... don't beat yourself up on what could have been... and keep pushing to your goal." absolute TRUTH!!!

"looks are NOT everything but LOOKS are what get you to EVERYTHING else." really GREAT line!!!!

welcome to LBT.....sorry I can't answer specifics to your UK questions. Here in the US we have come to associate any individual who is pushy or offering some kind of "CASH NOW" deal with some kind of questionable set up. In general, ALL surgery including WLS requires careful consideration, consultation, and evaluation both of the patient and BY the patient of the facility and surgeon they want to use. I would personally avoid any pushy sales pitches and make absolute sure that any I deal with is reputable and has both qualification and good reputation. Good luck to all.

Better discuss this with your surgeon. About 4-5 years ago there were a few Bandsters with similar complaints but I haven't seen anything recently. Some discussion on the regional neurophysiology didn't help clarify the issue. Hope you find resolution soon. Please let us all know!

From the various responses on the OP subject, it is obvious there is a constellation of possibilities in our choices on our weight loss journey. Opportunity to discuss such helps most of us continue to find our way. Similar confrontations in the past helped me align my own efforts from the always-difficult battle of "will power', to something I was more in control of...my "WON'T power"....as in.....I WON'T continue the old habits that lead me to Morbid Obesity....and all the moronic behavior to which I subjugated myself under the delusion eating more would somehow solve my problems. Personally I have had to learn to redirect my attention FROM "hunger" and "fullness" TO more effective behaviors, such as the reality of 'satiety' ...which leads to the discovery that over eating and appetite avoidance were largely habits imposed over the decades. It takes some changes in how we perceive 'hunger' and 'non hunger'. And it takes changes in our behavior along with continued exploration of our focus on over eating in the absence of any concept of what 'satiety' really is. Some of the best advise I ever gleaned was from unsympathetic observers unwilling to offer soothing tones supporting my old errant over eating behavior.

I second the suggestion to seek another opinion from a specialist at once!!!! I have not heard this kind of symptom complex before after so lengthy a successful postOp experience. PLEASE let us all know what you find.

re; "I need to get into the right pattern again and need some inspiration. " Go out and disconnect one of the spark plug wires to your bike and ride it 50 miles.....then come tell us whether you discovered motivation to reconnect it......

it's still in the same place

re: "it's scary fast, and a ton of fun." understand that for sure.....way back when the earth's crust was still hot and the Kawasaki 500 3 cylinder 2 stroke had just hit the market, it was the absolute hottest thing available. I took my GF out for a demo ride and shifting into 4th around 100 mph on the freeway, felt the steering get a little light...glanced down to see the front tire floating well off the pavement!!!! Proved to be way too much bike for what I was after at the time. About 20 years ago I had a V65 Magna, Honda's big sport bike at the time. More of an upright cruiser, it had something like 125hp claimed. Impressive acceleration in any case. Went on a nice 3000 mile jaunt with buddies on various road rockets of the era. Great way to see the country.

You've entered another entertaining phase of Life postOp and "Now What"? For myself, the pleasure and success of the band has left ME also "35#" from my goal. Now in my sixth year, there are important changes in my habits and brain-notion of eating and overeating. It has worked well for me to abandon the failed concept that 'full' and 'not hungry' are the same. Indeed, that irrational pairing helped lead me to 373# at one point. We do not need to repeat the mistakes of the past. And my own method may not translate into how you respond to the basic hunger drive. I've tried to train myself to 'eat when hungry' and "STOP" when not hungry. Sometimes a few bites is all it takes. I find hard Proteins serve me better eaten first. A grilled 4 oz buffalo patty does wonders. So does a complex bowl of fresh produce with a bit of shrimp or some shredded cheese. It is too easy to fall back on the old "Trail of the Morbidly Obese" and begin snacking on those empty nutrition bombs from the past. The essential GOOD thing, is I simply can not stuff much pasta/bread/etc into myself anymore. Nor do I even care for it. Once a staple, spaghetti or pizza now is a rare and not very satisfying meal. About once a year I can and do indulge in a cream puff.....but it no longer occupies my desires of forbidden food. I do enjoy eating....only now I actually do eat to live rather than the previous live-to-eat mania. A BIG surprise, is I've come to actually enjoy the process of "Becoming Hungry". I used to live in the anxious anticipation of doing such, and eat to avoid becoming hungry. I was actually raised with the advise of "Don't eat on an empty stomach" and "Don't go to bed without something in your stomach". I've had far more success in learning what "satiety" is and how to attain that. I enjoy my meals far more when eating to that magic point of 'satiety' than the delusion of 'full'.....which by experience I know can never be reached for very long. "Satiety" lasts for hours and continues to lead me toward my goal. Cheers and good luck on your journey. Be sure to let us know what you learn.

adding another direct observation, it DOES take time to grow use to NOT being the biggest person in every room. There IS a different dynamic of how the public treats us when Morbidly Obese vs as we near our goal. And we treat ourselves differently too.

Things I've learned: 1) One of the most astounding things I learned, was that 'being full' is not the same as being 'not hungry'. Being 'not full' is not the same as 'hungry'. I've posted about this a lot. 2) My first fill was SIX months postOp. I didn't need a fill. Approaching the 1.5/4cc band level, I developed lots of symptoms we now all recognize as 'overly tight'. Being stubborn, I endured months of daily PB as gagging based on an erroneous premise. 3) We got through phases in learning how to be 'not Morbidly Obese'. It takes practice to learn how to be more Normo size clothing and Normo reasons for eating.

great discovery!!!! as time moves on you will find other NSVs to help mark your progress. Cheers on your journey

there has always been a bias of non-Bandsters to promulgate their own favorite WLS. The issue to solve, is for you and your physician to decide which is best for you. I'm in my 6th year postBand and would do it again in a heartbeat. The sleeve might be a good choice for me also, but was not available when I was researching my options. Whatever your choice, there will be those who seek to impose their own opinions on your circumstance. Cheers on your journey whatever option you pursue.

cheers on your new commitment to personal health that 'pressure' is the weight of the dragons of old habits trying to continue imposing their desire on your "won't power"..... as in...."I WON'T yield to the habit of gobbling my food" and "I WON'T continue stuffing myself with my eating shovel when I'm not actually hungry" etc. From what I've read, port replacement is not such a big deal. What we do with our 'eating hats' is a bigger deal. You can do whatever you choose. I found when I choose smaller nibbles and better chewing, I get far fewer incidents of PBs and various swallowing pain. I consider them errors of eating and errors that I can control by observing what caused the symptom. Invariably my own similar complaints have been revealed to be my own old eating habits slipping back into temporary dominance. We have to keep 'in training' for far longer to change those basic habits over the decades that produced our Morbid Obesity in the first place. It does become easier as time goes on. Whether being 'looser' or a 'loser' regarding unwanted fat, we have to find ways to modify our own behavior. That is the biggest challenge for me. keep us posted on your progress

added note: In retrospect, my own preOp eating behavior was more related to 'the ANXIETY of becoming hungry' rather than actually eating because I WAS hungry. The fear and anticipation of becoming hungry resulted in a non-physiological eating behavior that amplified my own loss of the relationship between the Normo complex of : hunger-eat-satiety-STOP eating. The problem postOp is not to satisfy hunger. IMHO the problem is to learn to stop eating when NOT hungry. We *MofTotMOs* must learn new rational eating behavior based on physiological hunger rather than our old habits.

Most of we members of the *Tribe of the Morbidly Obese* spent much of our lives 'consumed with consuming' while 'hunger' had little to do with our eatEatEAT habits. I experienced 'hunger' in a far different sense than preOp, and have learned to actually enjoy aspects of it, rather like an approaching storm front in spring. Now often only a bite or two is plenty to banish 'hunger' for considerable time. Most of our time we have all responded to 'hunger' with EATEATEAT. Normos have a different approach to hunger. They get hungry. They eat. They stop. They recognize 'hunger', 'satiety' and 'full' as being very different. As a *MofTotMO*(see above) my response to food for far too long, was to equate 'full' with 'not hungry' and 'not full' with eatEatEATEATEAT until I was 'full'. That of course doesn't work very well. Success for shrinking my BMI from 47.5 to 34 was coming to recognize the important difference in 'hunger' vs 'sport eating'. Food satisfies physiological hunger. When I recognized the difference it became far easier to enjoy 'being hungry' as I could enjoy 'eating' rather than 'eatEatEATing'. cheers to all of us this year on our journeys

usually a school track is available for casual walkers. I did that for a while. It's amazing how rapidly our bodies will adapt and want us to give it more laps/longer time on the track. And finding walking routes in local parks is also free. Some areas have hiking trails available. Kids all seem to like little outings. cheers on your journey

I failed to attain 'muscle car freak' status long ago....although there was a particular Boss something-or-other Mustang from the early 70s that was tempting. Street rods, classic heavy metal and farm trucks have occupied way too much of my attention. Of late, motorcycles-sports cars-blonds have been replaced with lawn tractors-rototillers-4x4s. Such is life.

My palette changed on a whole raft of formerly favorite foods postOp. I can't report on alcohol tastes as I had to jettison that decades ago due to diabetes. Many articles of what I've read supports the occasional drink, and it seems some successful Bandsters have included such in their life styles. Learning how to treat our own community members as we learn how to function in our New Lives is an added benefit LBT encourages. It is a world full of differing opinions and standards of behavior. Learning how to disagree without being disagreeable is a beneficial goal for all of us.

I told some folks and not others.....it really IS an individual decision. People in general are supportive but some just can't help themselves dredging up horrid examples of surgery gone awry and examples of why YOU should do what THEY think you should. When my fat remediation process become rather obvious to all, some continued to plague me wanting to know how I was shrinking. One of my better lines was "I'm losing weight due to clean living and righteous thoughts". Whatever level of invasive or downright rude inquiry into our own notion of private information is a good area in which to learn further self reliance and ability to control our own behavior along with eating and over eating. For sure, I do NOT have any 'guilt' about telling or not telling anyone anything. cheers on your journey