snowbird

Having a cookie or a piece of cake doesn't make you gain weight. Having a steady diet of cake and cookies does. If you feel that you are always denying yourself and punishing yourself, you will probably fail at your weight loss attempts. If you change your lifestyle so it does not include high fat or high sugar foods on a regular basis, but have a treat on special occasions, you will feel much better about your diet and be more successful. My daughter knows a bandster who has lost over 250 pounds. One day a week she lets herself have anything she wants to eat. So just don't eat the whole *#&$* cake and you will be fine!

I'm 5'5" and 184. I fit into size 10 or 12 pants, but tops I am at least an XL. My daughter, on the other hand, is about the same height, 199, and fits into size L tops, but wears size 16 jeans. If we stand face to face, maybe we look like one of those yin-yang drawings.

I can take capsules with a sip of water, but once in a while they will get stuck too. I don't think I would try large tablets. I can get down an Advil, but not the larger pills.

You can also get stuff like Norwalk virus from food that has been prepared by someone who has it and hasn't washed their hands properly. My daughter got some anti-nausea meds from her doctor that she keeps on hand just in case she comes down with something that causes vomiting. Sorry, Paulax, too late for you this time, but maybe for the next time!

<p>There's an old saying that I like to live by: "Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by . . ." well, the original quote ends with "stupidity" but a better finishing word would be "ignorance." It seems here and elsewhere that people are always ready to take offense at what other people say or do. I just figure the ones they are po'd at don't know what they are talking about or realize what they sound like, and forget it. Makes me feel superior rather than slighted.</p>

My BMI was 35. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield federal employees' insurance. My co morbidities were not so severe as to be considered life threatening at this point: BP was a bit high, blood sugar levels a bit elevated but not diabetic, a tendency to hyperextend my knees due to a congenital problem that was worsened by my weight, and acid reflux. Since I went to Mexico I had to pay first, but my insurance reimbursed me everything except about $80. I went to a primary care physician who was my daughter's doctor also, and she had lost nearly 100 pounds with the band, so he was very enthusiastic and supported my desire for the band totally.

I've thrown away entire loaves of bread, whole jars of Peanut Butter, boxes of Cookies, whatever is tempting me. Go through your kitchen and toss whatever it is that will tempt you to binge and get rid of it. Mush it up in the garbage and throw rotten stuff on top of it, or else you will dig it out again when you want it. Believe me, I know. I've actually gone out to our outside underground garbage can and pawed through stuff to get to donuts I tossed. In other words, you aren't alone, you aren't evil, you aren't bad. You have a problem with food like all of us. But you are also a thinking human being and you can figure out a way to stop yourself from doing the binging and unconscious eating. The best way is to not have anything around to attract you, and the second is to get a good fill.

I have FEP BCBS standard and had my lap band surgery in Mexico. I had to pay the $8000 for surgery up front, but I just got a check from BCBS for $7926.00. It took them about 6 or 7 weeks to pay. I think it helped that I got all my ducks in a row before submitting my claim. I went to my PCP and discussed the surgery, and he wrote up notes on the visit which discussed my co-morbidities, showed my BMI of 35, and noted that LBS would improve my health and help deal with the co-morbidities. By the way, they were not severe: elevated blood pressure of 155/40, slightly elevated sugar levels, joint pain in my knees due to congenital problem with my kneecaps, acid reflux. Nothing life-threatening at this point. Since my doctor was concerned about the acid reflux, I had an upper g.i. endoscopy done which showed I had Barrett's esophagus and a hiatal hernia. I then scheduled an appointment with a psychologist who did an evaluation and wrote that I was a good candidate for surgery. Finally I got surgical report from my Mexican surgeon's office as well as an itemized bill, along with a receipt showing I had paid it. I sent in all of this information with the form you can print out online for overseas medical treatment. BCBS never contacted my for any further information, and I now have my payment. Yay!

If you are thinking of having a particular clinic or hospital do your surgery, just call them up and ask them how much it is. I did that with the Scottsdale Bariatric Clinic, and when they told me $19000 (this was last year) I decided I was going to Mexico.

I'm a snacker, not a big plate person, so my little band does NOT take watch out for me. I do count calories, and try to stay between 900 and 1100 per day. The band makes it easier to do this but it doesn't do all the work for me.

No girdle for the past 35 years, but if I wear jeans that are too tight I have problems. Anything that would squeeze your stomach is probably not a good idea with a band.

And by the way, you are WAY too young to be having a midlife crisis.

How about a fluoroscopy to check the band position? Did your doctor do that when you had the unfill?

I don't eat sugar and keep fairly low carb. I am never hungry. I usually eat a meal either because I want to eat for the flavor and texture of food in my mouth, or because I know I should. If I don't eat meals I will snack on less healthy stuff. If I waited to have real hunger pains I would not ever eat!

My husband, king of the all you can eat buffet, bought a hamburger a week after he went back on solids. It took him four meals to eat the thing. Now if we go to McDonald's, we order a 99 cent burger and a side salad, then split them. Sometimes we still can't finish the stuff.

Had it before surgery, it went away during liquid phase, now it's back again, but not as bad as pre-surgery, when I was on two Nexium a day and still had it every night.

This forum reveals not only the physical complications from being banded, but the mental/emotional ones as well. The threads here have discussed how many bandsters still struggle with poor self-image problems even after losing their excess weight, plus how some people replace food addiction with other dependencies. Quite frankly, I am amazed at the number of problems I've seen bandsters struggle with on this forum. Have you been reading more than just a couple of threads?

Lots of people (most people?) don't lose once they go back on solid food, until they get their first fill. I was banded 10/10 and lost 15 pounds over the next three weeks, then went on solids and didn't lose anything more until my first fill November 29. I've lost 7 pounds since then, in less than 2 weeks. Even when I am losing weight, I don't do it steadily. I stay at a weight for a week, then drop 5 pounds overnight. Don't get discouraged; just stay on track and it will come off.

I've seen posts from other bandsters where they say they use baby forks and spoons to make sure they keep their bites small. At this point, I have a different perspective about eating. I rejoice when I have difficulties and have to chew, because it means the band is working and for the first time in my life I have a chance of losing this burden of weight and keeping it off. Hurray for restriction!

I always figure the overeating addiction is like an alcoholic who is told he has to drink 1/2 a beer three times a day, no more, no less. It's practically impossible to maintain that without some outside help. I am at the beginning of this journey, and the bad stuff that happens when I eat too much is enough to stop me. I have always . . . well, usually, been able to say no to the bad foods at the store, and since the kids are gone I don't buy much in the way of junk. That is the only way I can survive.

Not only insulation, but metabolism, I think. I have a skinny skinny friend who is always cold, and I used to make fun of her. Now I know exactly how she feels. We are up in Western Washington state visiting our kids for Christmas, and I can't wait to get back to Arizona and feel warm again!

I know what you mean; my daughter, banded a year ago, told me she doesn't enjoy eating now because it's so boring, having to chew so much. Plus, stuff that starts out tasting good, loses its appeal after you turn it to mush in your mouth. However, I think that's the whole idea of the band . . .

Grace, I called a clinic in Washington state the other day to check on their availability. They refused to take on anyone banded in Mexico. Maybe it's not the case in your area, but it is true elsewhere.

WABB, I send links to snopes.com so much that now all my relatives send me crap just so they can find out if it's true. Heaven forbid that they would check out a story's veracity themselves before spreading it far and wide. I had to laugh when I saw the latest rabidly religious email running around about the movie "The Golden Compass" contained an email link to snopes.com to show that everything they said about it was true--"just check out snopes.com to see." Irony, anyone?

Don't push the three month restriction on ab exercise. I am two months from surgery, and still feel pain if I lift anything heavy. There is no sense in causing damage to your healing in the quest for a faster body reshaping. One of the hardest things for most of us, I think, is to realize that even with the band we are not going to be skinny and fit overnight. I keep seeing posts where people are complaining that they are "only" losing one or two pounds a week. Considering that without the band I would not be losing anything and would probably be gaining weight, I think one or two pounds a week is great. That translates to 50 to 100 pounds a year, and to lose much faster than that would not be healthy.