Jachut

I've never been a tracker and lost weight successfully without it, but that's easier if you have plenty to lose and have a reasonably healthy metabolism. I always knew "roughly" what I ate (what lifelong dieter doesnt). That was enough. However, long story short, got sick, had other surgeries, got really really thin while unfilled, had trouble getting restriction back, got healthier, regained weight. I've put back a few kilos more than I really wanted to and now that I'm already thin, I really MUST log or that 300 calories or so that make all the difference creep in unnoticed. But my tips - consistency is the real key. Doesnt matter what you do or dont do as long as you keep at it day after day, week after week, month after month. Make it doable and something you can continue rather than an all or nothing approach that will continue to have you falling off the wagon and having to get back on. Slow and steady wins this race! Same with exercise. I dont feel any compulsion to kill myself with Insanity (not that its not a great program). I like running. I dont care what the experts say about strength training or cardio or whatever, its what I like, so its what I do and I'm consistent, five or six days a week for the last almost seven years. Pays off big time. Plus I think running is THE most effective fat burner out there, despite what all the "experts" say.

Carrot sticks with natural almond butter

I agree - we have different brands here in Australia but I always buy lactose free milk and yogurt rather than soy yogurt or any of the other "milks". I quite like flavoured soy milk occasionally, and I love a dash of soy milk in strong black coffee, I will also opt for a soy cappucino or latte if I fancy frothy coffee (which is not often). But I like cows milk best. Did you know though, you can add drops (Lactaid here) to dairy products, refrigerate for 24 hours and all the lactose will have been broken down by the enzymes and will now be effectively "lactose free". I do this for things like cream cheese or condensed milk that I need to use in recipes. Thats all thats been done to lactose free milk or yogurt - they are REAL dairy, jsut with an enzyme added to predigest the lactose. So they dont taste any different at all.

I havent had breast cancer, but was diagnosed with rectal cancer two years ago. My band was unfilled for surgeries ut in hindsight even that wasnt necessary. I had fill in during radiation and chemotherapy pre surgery and coped absolutely fine - at that stage I was fit and strong and coped without nausea - then I unfilled for the bowel resection (because my colorectal surgeon told me to) - and remained unfilled during the heavier duty chemo post surgery - I had nausea but easily controlled with Zofran. I began refilling about half way through my 20 rounds of chemo. Afterwards I had awful trouble trying to get the same restriction, my band has never been quite the same but it IS functional and OK. the main problem I've had was I had to take Iron tablets for four months and they burned a little each time I swallowed one - it turned out they caused an ulcer in my pouch. I had dreadful heartburn for months, but a few rounds of nexium has cured it - so if you have to take anything like that take it WITH nexium to protect your stomach. The main issue is going to be if you have to have radiation therapy to he area - they are brilliant with calculating how to target only the affected tissue, but there is collateral damage - for example I can now when I need to go to the toilet (thankfully I am continent), but dont get the urge or push to empty, I have to trigger it with a small enema - nerve damage to the area from radiation. I also cannot digets fructose, wheat, lactose properly anymore and am on a restricted low fodmap diet - again damage to the gut lining from radiation and chemotherapy. My overies were fried - hot flushes and menopause begain two days after the very first radiation treatment. So it is not inconceivable that there may be damage to your band and stomach being close in behind your breast. But that's not a certainty and what can you do anyway? Just try to relax and pray that it all comes back negative anyway.

Well, I'm having terrible trouble now, but I had rectal cancer and lost my rectum well after banding - so the problems i have now are due to that. However, once i got banded, I dropped from a daily kinda person to once every second day - you put less in and you get less out, simple as that. But I never had "trouble" in terms of constipation, I just produced less.

Wow, so you had to do the liquid diet to mushies to solids and didnt lose any weight? That sucks - although I too am below goal, I always want to lose more weight, lol. Not that I'm scheduled for revision surgery but I've always wondered if you would lose a ton of weight you didnt need to lose. I guess now that I think of it though, its extremely hard to drop weight now.

I love the heat now. No sweat rash, no thigh chafing, confident wearing shoe string straps and short shorts and a bikini and cute dresses, no rolls of fat to accumulate heat. I definitely handle the heat with ease now (dont ask me about my hair and humidity though). However, the downside of that is the cold. I live in Melbourne, very temperate, average winter day at this time of year is about 13, 14 degrees celcius - it never gets to snowing temperatures and I am freaking freezing all the time. Bone cold, painfully cold. I'm a teacher and schools arent warm places, I turn the heater on to blasting when I get to work, and the kids are all moaning and complaining and I have to turn it off - I have an "inside coat" which I never take off - a light, fleece lined trench and an outside coat - a big fat thick parka which I add on top of my inside coat for yard duty or even to go to the staffroom! I would absolutely die in some of the temperatures you get over there. Everyday I get home from school at the moment, I'm that frozen that I have to have a hot bath to warm up.

Sorry, lack of restriction. I really feel for you, the way your System works with health insurance linked to your employment. If i were you Id move heaven and earth to get to the doc (or a closer one). Otherwise its just down to diet and exercise. Although we ll have to face that at times, you cant jst go tighter everytime you gain a little!

Sorry to say but if you cant go to the doc regularly and get fills when you need them then you may as well not have a band - it simply will not work without that restriction. Even seven years out i m in regular contact and occasionlly have top up fills. Just curious, so many people seem to end up in your position - do financial circumstances change (which cant be helped) or do you not understand this commitment going in? I dont mean to be negative, but the only real answer is to see your doc if its a ack f restriction, which you dont make clear but it sounds that way.

Yes, i cant handle milky coffees anymore, cheese and yogurt are fine, and cold skim milk in amounts such as a bowl of cereal, but warmed, ugh. Nausea followed by gas.

Hald a tub of plain yogurt, a big spoonful of LSA mix, a smll handful of wlnuts abd some berries, mmmm

I've cooked it now - my family didnt like it served like rice. It wasnt awful but it wasnt much good either. I did make tabbouleh from it, that was good - you couldnt really tell the difference between that and cracked wheat and the rest I used in a couple of salads for my lunches at work. I wouldnt be in a hurry to actually cook it for dinner again - mainly because it could be fine if its spiced up and made into a real "dish" but I'm on an elimination diet and not eating onions, garlic or commercial broths and stockes as well as wheat, dairy etc. Maybe once I'm sure none of those foods will aggravate my guts I might try doing something fancy with it.

It really is important for me to include protein AND good carbs (like brown rice or quinoa) at each meal. If I skip the carbs too many meals in a row, I eventually WILL break down and scoff a packet of biscuits.

This pretty much describes me to a T too. To maintain my weight on this many calories though, I need to run for an hour five mornings a week and go to a couple of spin classes too.

That's great - because you've had the investigations and know that there's nothing wrong with your band causing the reflux. So medication is totally appropriate - and there's good medications out there to handle reflux. But medication is not appropriate when a slip or overfill has not been ruled out. Because despite the symptoms being controlled the reason may be causing permanent damage to your band. By all means people should take medication that makes them more comfortable, but they should not take it, figure out it controls their symptoms and then fail to investigate the cause.

I've never been tight in the morning, if anything, I tend to eat a lot up until lunchtime and then am tighter in the evenng.

I couldnt survive without it. It was particularly valuable during cancer treatment. I used that time to mull stuff over and reflect.

Been there, sorta still there. It seemed the more I filled, the less restriction I felt! Had a barium swallow finally and yes, doc said VERY tight. He let me go but I recently unfilled a bit due to heartburn. You do just graze and graze and graze and never get that satisfied feeling. The small unfill I had, I certainly didnt begin noticeably eating more and certainly havent gained weight from it. Didnt lose either, but I have none to lose anymore.

Beach in the summer is a huge one for us - and my daughter makes sure I actually swim. She can go all day. We pick a dog beach and take the doggie too. My boys as teenagers are way too cool to be seen at the beach with their geriatric mother in a bikini, sigh.

I think you could confidently work on a cup.

Oh, mmmmmm Peanut Butter, drooool. As I am finally learning, now that I have to be wheat free, lactose free and low fodmap, there are SO many really good (and very healthy) treats to make, you seriously dont need that white flour crap. I dont even buy gluten free alternatives to bread, Cookies etc because they're just as crap as the wheat products! I made some pancakes today with oat flour (I ground it in my Vitamix) and LSA mix and they were fantastic!

I didnt have a tummy tuck until I was about three years past hitting my goal weight. I didnt really need one for cosmetic reasons due to weight loss, I could easily have lived with the small amount of loose skin I had, I even wore a bikini quite happily. But I had bowel surgery and an ileostomy which left hernias and a really ugly scar, so I had a tummy tuck to fix all that up. In fact, I had so little loose skin that my tummy tuck scar had to be pretty high, only "just" low enough for a bikini bottom, the surgeon simply could not pull my skin any tighter and its taking me a loooooong time to get rid of the tightness, numbness and swelling. Wow, Karen, that port IS huge. No wonder you want to do something about it. Mine was similar but not quite as bad, and when the surgeon fixed it up, he told me it was all unstitched and tilted anyway, although my doc never had any trouble filling first go. Once mine had the back off it, was moved to a better location and stitched down firmly, it because barely visible.

The hard fact to swallow - pardon the pun - is that "too tight" doesnt always mean lots of restriction. Too tight for YOU could still be loose enough to let you eat bread and steak and might still be loose enough so that weight loss is a tough ask. Sometimes your body just handle the restriction you think you want and there's unfortunately no way to make excuses or beat around the bush with this, acid reflux will damage your band AND your body over time. I've been as guilty of this as anyone, putting up with the burning pain for five whole months before I really just told myself, I had to face the unfill. But it turns out it was a different issue altogether. Like my doc said to me though, its lovely to be maintaining a weight of 140lb at my 5ft 10, but if I had acid reflux to do it, then I just had to face the fact that I might have to be 10lb heavier. I didnt much like hearing that but its true. You cant beat this one, if you have reflux that you cant control with medication you are going to have to try unfilling.

Well, all that would definitely be nice without that lump on your belly! Good luck with it I'm sure you'll be thrilled with the results. I got an erosion in my pouch too - not of the band but an ulcer due to taking Iron tablets for four months! I have had the most painful, horrible heartburn but without any reflux and finally had a gastroscopy and there it was. I thought the iron tablets burned a little when I was taking them! But luckily my doc thinks a month on Nexium will heal that damage.

Im so used to my band after nearly seven years that i think it doesnt work so well anymore. Ive lost perpective because every now and then i tice what someone else puts away and i realise how much less i eat.