nina874

Hmmm, if I am feeling very virtuous I will eat a rye bread with mashed up salmon with some salad. I tend to eat what everyone else is eating just less of it. I try to drink a pint of veggie juice a day, thus getting around the 5 a day problem as I found that with the decreased portion size I can manage I would have been eating 4 a day and nothing else!, Veggies and fruit and not that easy to eat with the band they have a tendancy to get stuck ( well for me they do) so juice seemed the logical way to go. I dont do Breakfast, never have done, I think it is a by product of years of morning sickness, I tend to have a light lunch maybe some Soup and a ryebread, but at dinnertime I will have whatever I have cooked for the family from roasts to jamaican jerk chicken rice and gravy. I always make sure that each forkful has some bulky food on it and I eat really slow. I never ever deny myself anything, and if I get upclose and personal with a tub of Ben and Jerrys I just work harder in the gym the day after, it doesnt happen that often so I dont worry about it! When I was trying to lose I focused on a lot of Protein, chicken mainly with a spoonful of whatever sauce or gravy I had made, I still have to cut meat up really small and chew it well and it always fills me up. I reckon 1/2 a chicken breast is about my limit without sauce and nearly a whole one with sauce. The dryer the food the faster you get full, any meat based protein is good, just make sure that you cut it up well. Fish is also good but the meatier the better, think salmon or tuna rather than skate or bass. I have to say that veggie juices are my life saver, I know that I am getting my vits so then I can relax and not worry about it.

Absolutly, but then you can with all kinds of weightloss surgery! If you want to eat icecream, creamed potatoes and gravy and all of the slide down a treat foods then you can and you wont lose any weight, but if you stick to a few simple rules - like eat the bulky stuff first and then just have one cookie which is all you will want when your band is full, then you will do fine. Often it is the taste that you are after, but the full mechanism gets turned off if you dont have a band. In my experiance if you push your band like that it will give you big time payback in the form of a stuck episode or just an outright vomit. I call it my choke chain, it yanks me back when I need it! As one of the previous posters said, it is a much a battle of the mind as a battle with the stomach. I railed against my band rules for the first year, I still lost weight I just bitched about it all the time, then once I realised that as long as I ate the bulky stuff first and didnt have things swimming in sauces the weight would come off and I could still get all the flavours I was craving I just chilled out. The bypass was waaaaay to radical for me, and I am the kind of girl that if I can't have something it becomes my obsession to have it, there is no way that I could deal with dumping syndrome, or the nasty side effects of fats. Everything had to be available to me I needed to take back the control myself. I could go into all the reasons health wise why I chose the band but ultimatly your friend will decide to do what she wants to do, just warn her that none of the paths are easy!

I thought I would post this as a boost (hopefully) for people just starting their journey. Firstly let me say that I LOVE MY LAPBAND!!!!! lol I have been at my goal weight for over a year now and have kept on losing without really thinking about it, the lessons that I learned whilst trying to lose the weight have stayed with me and my life is so much simpler now! I started out at a US 14/16 and I am now a US 2/4. In the first three months I lost about 40lbs and then it has just been a slow steady decrease, I hit my goal about a year ago and I am now over 20lbs under it. You have to have faith in your band and work with it not against it. There will be times when it is easier to shovel down something sloppy rather than take the time to cut up the good food and chew it well, but dont fall into the trap! Even when you think that 3lb a month is a pathetically slow weight loss, add that up over a year and it is easy to see how with time you will pass your goal. I had a very complicated relationship with food prior to my band, it fell into the love/hate category, as in looooooved it most of the time, had to declare war on it if I ever wanted to diet! I still love food, I still enjoy all of my meals, I just dont obssess about it anymore. I no longer gorge just because it tastes nice, but I have learned that a little bit of what you like will not harm you, instead of the entire bowl of trifle I have a few spoonfulls and I am very satisfied with it. I never deny myself anything, I just only have a tiny portion, once I stopped that feeling of denial ( I am soooo a ' wants what I cant have' person) my life simplified. Now I know that I can have anything that I want, I'm not actually that bothered about having it! I have discovered a love of excercise, I work out 3/5 times a week and love kicking my a** in the gym, I look and feel 10 years younger and have so much more energy and confidence. I lift weights and I am now enjoying watching my body change shape, in fact food wise I have to make sure that I eat enough as my DH has announced that I am too skinny! I cannot remember the last time I felt GUILTY about eating something, and I cannot tell you how refreshing that is after years of beating myself up. I treated myself to a Tummy Tuck ( dont listen to people that tell you that exercise will get rid of it, loose skin is loose skin and after 6 kids I felt that I had earned it) and I am going to have a BA this year as unfortunatly the girls have suffered as a result of the fat loss and ironically the weighlifting! People may call it vainty, I call it a reward for all my hard work. In fact my DH has been so amazed by the change in me that he is going to have his gastric band fitted next friday! He reckons after watching me make all the mistakes that I made in the early days he will be going into it ahead of the game, I hope so, and I hope that he ends up as happy at the end of his journey as I am at the end of mine.

I have a power plate that I have used ever since I got banded. I have had a FTT but I am sure that the vibration of the plate combined with the exercises that you perform have helped with skin retraction elswhere on my body. HTH

I cant help you but I will be really interested in the replies as I have a consult in 2 days for the same reason. Nanni I work out 3/5 times a week for at least an hour, I lift weights do cardio and generally beat my body into submission, it actually just makes my breasts worse! You cannot replace lost fat and excess tissue with muscle in your breasts, have you ever seen a male body builder with D cups? I too am hoping to get away without a lift, I was at one stage an E/F cup and I am now a C but the skin has to some degree retracted and my nipples are where they should be there is just zero volume, sad sad shadows of their former glory I am afraid!

I have a low profile port and it is still really visible, apparently there is a new super low one that is the thickness of a 50 pence piece, make sure you ask for that one!

Dont worry about it, my friend was on hers when we both had our FTT and | followed her a day later, it was slightly more awkward sorting yourself out post op with the compresion garment to contend with, but the surgeon wasnt bothered in the slightest!

I had a FTT done 2 years ago when I weighed about 165lbs, I did it because it didnt matter how much weight I was losing I hated my stomach after 6 kids. I was willing to take the risk in order to get the boost I needed, and I was lucky because my skin kept up with the subsequent weight loss. I now weight about 112lb and my tummy is still tight - cant say the same for the rest of me, I am having a BA this year cos the girls are looking saaaad! If you need a boost to get rid of the rest of the weight then go for it is my advice.

Hi all you UK bandsters! I just thought I would pop on here and ask if any of you had any questions. I am not the oracle:biggrin2: but I have had my band for nearly a year now, and I am about 6lbs off my initial goal weight. I was banded with Surgicare in Manchester, had the op in the Alexandra in Cheadle and have been very happy with my aftercare etc (which isnt to say that I didnt spit out my dummy on more than one occasion) I have had fills both at the MRI in Manchester and in the Priory in Birmingham - I prefer the guy at the Priory but it is a personal choice thing, he is much more agressive in his approach. If there is anything that you would like to know just fire away, cant promise that I will know the answer, but I'll try! Nina x

I am at the stage where I am only 6lbs from the origional goal that I set.....problem is that I have been 6lb off for about 3 months now. Thing is I am quite happy with the way that I look/feel, I exercise 3-4 times a week, do about an hour of cardio and 1/2 to an hour of resistence and I wear a very comfortable US size 8. I just cant seem to motivate myself to that final push, but I know that I will be even happier if I were to lose another 14lb ( I set my origional goal quite high) but then I am looking better than I have in years. I have a tribe of munchkins, so keeping the house treat free would cause an anarchy type uprising, but my are those chips tempting......... I am also considering more PS, mainly lipo to sculpt my shape more and possibly a breast lift/implant (if I can get over my morbid fear of one of my nips dropping off) but I know that in a way I am 'cheating' as I will just get the bits that I want improving sucked out. Saying that I know that more weightloss wont give me the shape that I want......... lord I just go round a circles on this one.... How can I kick myself in the ass???

I think that losing weight gives you the chance to distinguish between the problems that were caused by how you felt about the way you looked, and the problems that run deeper. Once you can split them off you can deal with them, and sometimes it is a wake up call that there are things that need outside help. Getting them separted is just the first step, but losing the weight, and knowing what a huge difference you were able to make in that area of your life can give you the belief in yourself to tackle the other areas. The main problem is that you can change how YOU feel but you cannot force that change on other people, they have to want to change, or at least accept your reality. That part is considerably more tricky....

Yup I had that and it annoyed the crap out of me. When I got them to agree to do a barium they could see that I was wide open, then they gave me a fill. I think that care should be more patient led after all we are the ones that live with our bands day to day, so how can they presume that they know better???

Wow it took me a while to decipher that post! I would say that your emotional issues and your food issues are not neccesarily linked, they more provide cover for each other. You need to treat them as seperate issues otherwise you will always be able to blame a fail in one area on something that happened in the other. I had/have a lot of issues but I learnt with time that they arent why I ate too much, I ate too much because I bloody love food! It gives me pleasure, it relaxes me it provides all sorts of nice yummy feelings whether I am happy or sad. It is true to say that when I am feeling sad I am more likely to reach for food, but I had to learn to seperate the feelings and deal with them. I think that you need to deal with the emotions that you have rattling around inside of you because until you do that you wont be happy whether you are far or thin. You say that you hide behind your fat, but does being overweight help you in any way? Do yuo mean that you use it as an excuse? I mean as a reason for why you feel bad about yourself? If that is the case you already know that the feelings/emotions that you have go waaay deeper than how you look, so in a way ,yes, you will still be unhappy once you lose weight unless you look at the REAL reason that you dont like yourself. Dont give up on therapy, you have to find the RIGHT therapist,one that works for someone else may not necessarily work for you, but until you unravel the knots that you have in your psyche you will struggle to feel content. Should you get a Lapband? I dont know hon, if you think that you will deliberatly sabotage yourself then it will be a rocky road for you, lapbands are notoriously easy to cheat...... I guess what I am saying is that you should do a 2 pronged attack on this and sort out the emotional side at the same time. One thing that I will say is that I feel a damn sight better about myself when I look in the mirror now than I did a year ago! Shallow I know but true!

My dad is a panic monster, I went through him being totally stressed before my sx. Once it was done he just chilled out completely and now that I am so close to goal he doesnt stop telling me how great look! It is the fear of the unknown, once it is done they will be fine.

I am with everyone else. I think that for your doctor to wait until you DO develop co-morbidties is just insane! That means that if and when you do start to get health complaints you will have a huge mountain to climb, why not nip it in the bud now? Keep your expectations realistic, the band will help you, it wont do the work for you. You can still graze - trust me on that one!- and certain foods will still slip through (think along the lines of chips and cookies) so there is a fair amount of work left up to you. All of that said, I have found it to be an invaluable tool, as long as I remember that it is ONLY a tool. I would recommend that you go and get a private consult and self pay, for what people go through in the USA waiting to pass all the tests for their insurance, for me it isnt worth it, just cough up the dough and start the rest of your life!

45lb is a fantastic weightloss hon!!! Try and pick up a 45lb sack of tatties and you will soon realise what you have acheived. As for people noticing, I have a couple of theories on that, one is (as a previous poster pointed out) that when people are with you all the time it is such a gradual process that their perception of you adjusts as you lose, a bit like when your kids grow. You dont notice your children growing, and your memories of when they were shorter get a little fuzzy. The other one is that some people dont notice fat people, you are still not 'normal' to them so they don't notice until you are much nearer to goal, and therefore nearer a 'normal' body shape. The final one is that ironically the nearer you are to goal the more dramatic a difference even a 10lb loss will make, at a size 8 10lb will take you down to a size 6, at a size 18 10lb wont really make any difference!

I have a lower back tattoo and it has changed shape since I lost weight, it used to be more like this ////// and now it is not as wide but it is taller? Still looks good though :biggrin:

Depends on how long it has been, how desperate we both are, whether the kids are definately asleep etc etc. Anywhere between 5 mins and 45 mins. If he tends to get a little over excited and he is capable of it, why not have a quicky, give him half an hour, and then go for round 2? I promise he will last longer second time round :biggrin:

GOOD LUCK FRANGI!!!!! I expect pictures..... :0)

Karey, I think that now might be a good time for you to start a bit of written communication with your doctor. Ya know along the lines of, can you please confirm that the collection of fluid in my abdomen is in your opinion of no concern. Could you please Explain why you thought that my band is in an awkward position, and needed unfilling when I have no fill. Could you please explain why you feel that a barium series would be beneficial and what you expect it to show? Doctors as a rule like written communications as much as they like lawyers. Do not let this doctor fobb you off, you have paid good money for this surgery and it aint right, so they have to sort it out! Go and kick some white coat ass!

:wink2: LOL pretty much how they look at the moment then, but with possibly only one nip.

Oh great, so not only do I have to worry about my nips dropping off, but there is a 7% chance that one of my breasts will explode.........

Much to DH's dismay, no. The thought of the offspring stumbling across such pictatorial evidence is one that leaves me in a cold sweat - mainly at the thought of the future therapists bills.