petuniap

Thanks for this. I'm awhile away from surgery but I am concerned about how my thighs look after losing close to 100lbs. Knowing that TT can help...I'll probably be ok with not having "perfect" thighs.

I got banded about 3 years ago and have been working on losing my weight ever since. It's been slow going, lots of stops and starts, lots of periods were I did well and then "rested" for awhile...meaning, I didn't continue losing but didn't gain too much back either. In the past year, I picked up an exercise program, got much more stringent with what I'm eating and lost another good chunk of weight. I passed some thresholds, sized out of the plus sized stores, (briefly) hit the "100lbs pounds lost" mark etc. The biggest threshold seems to be how people view me. All of a sudden, people I have known for a long time are now saying "wow, you've lost a TON of weight, you look great!", even though they've seen me go through the progression. I'm by no means thin yet but I guess I'm more in a "normal" range of overweight now as opposed to whatever they were seeing me as before. I was having a conversation with a coworker about this tonight and she said..."well, you should be very proud of the accomplishment..you did it naturally. So many people do it by *getting surgery*, or crash dieting or taking pills". Obviously, she doesn't know I'm banded. I'm assuming she thinks I'm *NOT* in the surgery pool because I didn't suddenly lose a lot of weight. Only 2 people in the world know, my mom and my best friend. And the reason I don't tell anyone is because of what my coworker said. If people know you are banded, then all of sudden, you cheated somehow. You didn't do it naturally. And that pisses me off! I totally *worked* for this weight loss. I'm still working on it! I still fight myself every day about what I am eating and how much and when and why. There's no "cheating" involved. Would I be here today if I didn't get banded. Definitely not. God knows I tried. But I resent the thinking that using this tool somehow negates all of my hard work in people's eyes. It's like saying using a shovel to dig a ditch negates the work that went into that ditch. It's only valid if you used your hands. I call bullshit! I don't know what the solution is. A part of me wants to be that pioneer and explain to people that I did lose weight naturally but used the band as a tool to help me get to where I am. But the other part of me doesn't want to risk losing the approval I get from friends and family for losing weight. I'm afraid if I tell, that no matter how I explain it, they'll still label me a "cheater". I know I shouldn't care what people think but I'm not at that point yet. I do care what people think about some things. And this is one of them. Does anyone else run into this? How are you all dealing with it?

I was on my way to the gym yesterday and the weather had turned unexpectedly cold and rainy. I didn't have a jacket on, was only wearing a dress with a thin sweater over it and I was FREEZING. I had a bit of time to kill before my class so I decided to make a quick stop at a local coffee shop to warm up. I ordered a tea and because I was starving...a cookie. I know....why am I eating cookies? But this was a very small shop, they had nothing else and I decided to have it. Anyway, the guy at the counter said that he could give me a broken one for free and I said "hey it's still a cookie, right"? So I paid for the tea and then sat down to warm up a bit. After a few minutes, I hear the guy at the counter say my name. I looked up a bit surprised and he told me that his sister shared the same name. i couldn't figure out how he knew my name in the first place and I think I looked pretty funny looking at him and then looking down at myself to figure out where he'd read it. It turned out that I still had my work badge on, it was peeking out from under the sweater and that he could see it. When I finally put two and two together, I laughed slightly and said "I couldn't figure out how you knew that". He smiled and said that he didn't mean to creep me out and I smiled back and said that he hadn't. I wasn't sure if he was flirting or not...maybe he was a little. Normally, this is where I would freeze up and immediately go back to my tea without engaging but I took a breath, and made myself stay in the moment. We talked for a few minutes about the name thing and then I went back to finishing my tea and he went back to preparing to close the shop. Ten minutes later, it was time for me to head out so I said....thanks for the tea and cookie...and he said, you're welcome...have a good night...Petunia, with a smile. I looked back and smiled, waved and left. The whole thing made me realize how little experience I have with men being flirtatious. Intellectually, I know that men rarely talk to a woman without some idea of flirtation, I've learned that from my guy friends many, many times. And I know that when I was heavier, incidents like the one in the coffee shop almost never happend to me. So while he could have just been being friendly, it's more than likely that he was also being mildly flirtatious, but in a nice, chilled out, unscary way which is still fairly foreign to me. I can more easily believe that he was just being friendly because...why would anyone flirt with me? But I know that's self-defeating talk....there's no reason to believe that some portion of the male population won't find me attractive. And the longer I stay stuck in the idea that no one would be interested...the longer I'll stay single and lonely. So I'm proud of myself for not clamming up yesterday and for remaining open to the interaction. It didn't have to "go anywhere" but I think that if I stay open, then someday, it will "go somewhere" and I'll meet a nice guy. I'll forgive myself the cookie that brought that lesson with it

I've had my band for 3 years and... - I've never been a Water chugger so I don't miss that. But I can get down enough water in a gulp. I definitely did not stay as tight as I was when I first got the band. - I drink during meals all of the time. I got tired of the tiny bites and chew, chew, chew plus it made me look and feel abnormal when eating with friends. I still eat much slower than anyone else and my portions are tiny compared to what everyone else gets down but i use water to avoid any socially embarrassing sliming episodes or even when I eat alone and want to eat something that I know will potentially get stuck. It doesn't affect my stomach's ability to signal a "full feeling" to my brain, probably because my stomach has shrunk so much getting used to the small portions. 3-4 oz of Protein and a few bites of a vegetable is usually plenty to get a "full" feeling. But that came with practice, I wouldn't recommend it to a newbie. - I can get down deli meat by drinking water, otherwise it's stuck city. Same with white meat chicken....I rarely eat it because, even with a lubricant, it gives me a stuck feeling. I can eat a lot of other Proteins though..although I wish I enjoyed more types of fish because a nice white flaky fish is the easiest to eat with getting the stuck feeling and without any lubricant. - I drink seltzer like it's going out of style. I couldn't deal with the no carbonation thing so I started drinking diet sodas about 6 months after my surgery. Now I've given up artificial sweeteners so diet soda is out but I LIVE on those Canada Dry flavored seltzers, I'll take Poland Spring sparkling water in a pinch. Sometimes it's exactly what I need to hit the spot. It's also an amazing way to deal with going to a bar and not drinking alcohol (which I limit because of sugar content). If carbonation affected my pouch size, it wasn't noticeable at all to me. Any time I've stalled on weight loss, it was because of eating the wrong foods, never because I could eat too much of the right things. Really looking foward to getting a Sodastream so that I can make my own flavored seltzers. I guess my point is not to worry too much about what others' experience has been...you'll have your own which may be totally different and you are more adaptable than you think. There are things I miss a LOT, eating without fear of getting stuck is one of them, but the weight loss became worth it for me. Hope you all get to that point as well!

Jessy...I recommend you see a nutritionist...many lap-band doctors have one on-site at their offices. They can make specific recommendations for your diet. Also, consider buying a book on nutrition, I think you could really benefit from educating yourself more on this topic. It will help you to figure out what works for your body instead of simply following your doctor's advice or advice from this board. This is a lifelong journey and there are no "rules"....each person's formula will be different and none of us can know what will work for you. I can take a look at what you are eating and say...."up your protein, eat more fat, eat more vegetables...just eat more period"...but none of us are experts on anything except what works for us. A nutritionist will be able to give you far more specific advice and give you some guidelines around how much protein/fat/carbs you should be consuming to maintain a healthy rate of weight loss and what types of foods will satisfy those requirements.

You should UP your calories...I don't think you are eating enough and your body may be in starvation mode....holding onto fat as much as possible. Calorie cycling works really well for tricking the body into thinking it is not starving. So if you up your calories for a few days and then drop back them back down again, and repeat that cycle, that should kickstart the weight loss. Try adding in some healthy fats in there in the form of nuts (which add up calorically pretty quickly) or avocados. Good luck!