Jachut

Then again, i was out exercising the day after my surgery and my hubby didnt find it difficult either.

Dh and i were done two years apart. Its neither here nor there for us in tems of it being an advantage, we are both completely different in our approach. Dh is less proactive and lets his band do the work, i was very much in charge of my band. Consequently i lost 120% of my excess weight and dh lost about 65%. He is happy with that though, whereas i wouldnt be. And we dont exercise together, he is waaaaay too lazy for me!

Interested to see what others say. I have the same questions, im intrigued by the resukts i could get but put off by the exclusive nature of the program.

Thanks for the support guys. Ive just watched a tv show about a woman whose lost 200 lb and wow, i feel a whole new level of humility -or is it guilt - about being so happy to get my tummy fixed. Even though its necessary from a reconstructive viewpoint. I really dont have a cosmetic problem of any great scale, but i can find pics of tummies like mine all over the internet. I have a bit of a moral stumbling block with cosmetic surgery for some reason. Its very like feeling guilty on the cancer board i visit for only being a stage two, feeling like i cant talk about my problems because its only highlighting how much worse off others are. Or like the feeling that comes up every now and then here that those of us that were "less fat" somehow were less deserving or didnt have to work as hard. But youve buoyed me up. Yes! I do deserve this and by moving forward with it, its hardly like im steeling someone else's opportunity for it, is it?

I had to be unfilled for six months for cancer treatment, I was more scared of gaining weight than anything else. By concentrating on salads, vegies and fruit to fill in the ability to eat more, and continuing to run daily, all i gained was the unhealthy weight loss fro surgery ( which had put me below a bmi of 19). But by the end of six months i *really* needed that fill back.

Im in! Just binned a fruit cake, the leftover plum pudding, a dozen mince pies my MIL made, the brandy butter and the custard. I dont keep Christmas leftovers, once its over, its over. Just got back from running 8 kms too.

I'm absolutely over it. I dont bake for christmas, ever, for that reason anyway, but just the having a drink with someone. I dont ever have more than a glass of wine, but I've had one waaaay too many days, then we've had a few meals out with friends, a Christmas dinner with my family, one with DH's, then went visiting everyone again on Christmas day itself. Just a nibble, everywhere you go. I've found this year, like others, that with a band, December is not my healthiest month, but with effort to exercise I dont gain weight - and I havent - but with my new plumbing since a bowel resection, I cant handle a celebratory meal anymore, I despair of ever being able to go out to eat with friends again and not end up in pain. Small meal, fine, but just add talking and a drink or two during the course of it, and coffee after and it seems to overload my system. I wont go into details but I've spent more nights up and down for the toilet eight or nine times than I have sleeping. I feel really bleugh after this December!

Like Jack, I really enjoy my collection of small side plates that I eat off! I have an everyday dinner setting of plain white plates that the family uses and everythign to match - a variety of tiny bowls and such - just the kind of thing you can buy the pieces separately for. I use them for Cereal and yogurt and such, I know their capacity and my whole family eats off smaller plates (but not as small as me) - but I have a collection of various ones that I've seen and liked, some meals look great on a red plate, and a stir fry on a black plate is quite special, all the bright vegies lol. So yeah, just a bread and butter plate does the trick for me. Its just for me, I couldnt afford to indulge my crockery obsession for the whole family! And I get bored, I wouldnt want to buy a whole set and just have to use that anyway. It might sound a bit unhinged, but it really adds a bit of zing to ordinary everyday meals for me.

I wish I could say I had, but really, unless youre superhuman, you cant fight what society has become. My boys are 14 and 16 and they eat junk away from home, where I cant stop them. I buy limited amounts of snack foods and live with constant abuse about how there's no food in the house, how much better other mothers feed their kids etc. My middle son is very active, but I cant pry the older one away from the playstation and both he and my younger daughter love healthy food and snack on fruit, yogurt etc but they eat TOO DAMN MUCH. They are constantly whining they are hungry - and believe me, that whining DOESNT stop after a few weeks - they graze throughout the day, want big meals, so even though they dont eat a lot of junk, they're both overweight. Then they go to friends houses etc and get fed utter crap there. I try, I really do, but in the end, you cant do it for them. I provide healthy food, opportunities for exercise, but really, I can sign my son up to the gym, but can I fight with him every single damn time to get him to come with me? Others can judge if they like, and its true, you can control a 2 year old and what they eat, but I find I've just lost the battle and they're going to have to tackle their own health problems as adults. I really tried!

But i agree, very odd for someone newly banded to have one.

No thats not correct. I have one, banded 2005 in Australia and when i joined this board back then its what everyone had or was getting, so there's a fair few of us around with them (and way fewer posts about taking six months to get restriction too). I had 1cc for my first fill. I unfilled for another surgery last year and in refilling this year ive gone 1.5, 1, 0.5, 0.5. 0.2, 0.1

I dont do Christmas cooking and that's why. Yes im sure it would be all warm and fuzzy and id be a better mother, but all the people i know who really get into the whole cooking thing and making the best reindeer cookies and santa shortbreads for their kids' school parties are - wait for it - FAT. And their kids are fat. We always hav a great Christmas lunch and thats it, no mince tarts, no fruitcake, no shortbread. My mother never did it and ive still grown up loving christmas as a warm family time. The overeating and food just isnt ncessary. Give it up, don put yourself under the pressure and temptation.

My band was 3/4 full, giving me great restriction, and id maintained for years when i had to unfill it for surgery and chemotherapy. On filling it again, ive never been able to get the same restriction, theres now only 0.2cc to go ( old 4 cc band) and. I know i could add the other 0.2 and not be tight. Its strange - and its highly unlikely i have a stretched pouch after nine months empty. Because im maintaining rather than trying to lose, its ok, i do have restriction, just not the same. But i am thinking of having a barium swallow and upper just to check it.

One thing i have noticed though is how uncomfortable people get when you start dipping below. Bmi of 25. I mean 20 is healthy right? So why do all mu current doctors (lapband doc, colorectal surgeon, oncologist and gp) grill me in a very unsubte attempt to uncover my eating disorder? Why do they now think that th exercise that was applauded on the way down is now excessive? Weve all been told time and time again that fr weight loss to be successful, you need to make permanent changes, yet now people are saying " enough, you can ease off now". Theres something very complex in ourvway of thinking that makes us very uncomfortable with large weight loss.

To put cancer behind me, embrace my new teaching position and as a family make a freking decision already and get a bigger house.

Well my surgeon never made a "prediction" ( utterly ridiculous if you ask me) but i was told the most people dont lose 100 % of their xcess weight. The nutritionist didnt think i had much chance of getting to my goal of 70 kg. I not only blew that out of the Water but have settled at 65 kg which is over 120% of my excess weight. Ive spoken at info nights for my surgeon who has to say to the crowd that my results are not typical. But I didnt do anything magic, i worked my and but i dont follow a plan i eat what i want, and i exercise. I got the predicted 75% off within a year but the rest took about three years.

You really cant know if it orks for you unless you try it, anyone else's experience is irrelevant.

I'm six years post op, have a BMI of 20 and am still extremely happy with my band even though I had to unfill it for a surgery and have never quite gotten the same restriction back that I had. The one thing about the band is its adjustability. I've read stories ont he sleeve board about people who are unhappy with their "restriction" or how much they can eat or whatever you want to call it. Fact is, you will be eating a LOT less and if you do the work (and yes, there's still work), the actual amount of restriction isnt that important, if you eat less, move more, you lose weight. But that would be the one factor that would concern me - the what if? However, I once would have said that I didnt want to cut or remove parts of my body. I've now got no rectum or sigmoid colon, and it was traumatic losing those, but now its all over, I wouldnt even know they are gone. My body functions differently, but it functions pretty well and the sidfe effects are tolerable.With a sleeve the side effects are weight loss! And the issue of stomach acid. But that does settle with time. It wouldnt really concern me to lose half my stomach (the half that was making me fat!) and if I ever have to revise, and the sleeve becomes more widely done here, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I personally think, with ALL these surgeries, once you decide to have it, you know that things might not work out, but you have to have faith that that wont be you, And in all probability, it wont. There's risks with any surgery that it wont have the desired effect.

I'm a big goal kinda person, so for me, setting mini goals along the way wasnt really something I thought about doing. Oh, I could have set them, but it would have been a spurious, artificial kind of thing for me, I had my eye on the big prize at the end. And I'm not one to set "realistic" goals either. I wanted to lose a LOT of weight and get SLIM. I wouldnt have been happy just reaching a BMI of 25. Everyone always tries to discourage me from these lofty goals, encourages me to set smaller, more reachable ones, but its just not my personality. And I tend to either reach a goal or I dont, there's no halfway for me. So you do what you personally are comfortable with. If having a pedicure every 10lb motivates you, you do that. If you know you'll have the pedicure anyway, whether you lose 10lb or not, you dont bother.

Try doing it with only half your colon! Super ouch.

Why do people put stock in these television grandstanders? They're there to make shows and take ratings! I cant stand freaking Dr Phil or Dr Oz. I wouldnt put any stock in what they said - they're selling a product, themselves and their show and like ALL media, you cant place much faith in it. Make your own decisions based on your own research.

This is a good post, spot on. The band doesnt work for everyone because everyone's issues are different and everyone is prepared to different things to lose weight and keep it off. Most people, if they fill beyond a certain point will start to get food stuck and throw up a lot. Then they unfill and feel like they have "no" restriction. This is very common. But the truth is, there really is no perfect point of restriction with the band where weight loss is automatic but you dont get the side effects of getting stuck. This is not how the band is designed to work. I've never ever in six years found that "sweet spot" and have always had the capacity to eat things like sandwiches - my band has NEVER enabled me to live on 800 calories a day, I would be absolutely freaking starving and if I filled it that tight, I'd be stuck and throwing up all the time. But many people dont do very well at learning to eat slowly and carefully in the manner that they need to with a band. Its a big change, a difficult one but crucial for success. Throwing up is nearly always user error, and occasionally due to eating a food that just isnt going to work (those are different for everyone). As for living on baked chicken, well, that's right. YOu need to change what you eat no matter what. If you put some effort in, you can learn how to have variety and satisfaction in your diet without high calorie, fatty foods, and you can have those treat foods once in a while in small quantities. I say I eat whatever I want because I dont follow any particular diet plan but make no mistake, you cant truly eat "what you want" whenever you want it and lose weight successfully. There is denial and hard work involved and until you're ready to face that, a lapband is not going to help. Bypass as a surgery tends to be better for people who cant make these changes, but the problem is regain later on. Its not a moral failing for the band not to work and its not an attack when people post that it doesnt work and these people dont deserve to be told they're just not doing it right, but the truth is, the band isnt right for everyone.

Hmmmmm. Long term I certainly found it necessary to adjust my lifestyle to keep weight coming off and these days, I find it quite a lot of work to stay on the straight and narrow and it doesnt "feel" like the band does much other than restrict the quantity I can eat at a sitting. But I had to unfill it for another surgery and yep, its definitely cutting my appetite and making it easier to eat less overall. But that signal does get weaker with time. It gets easier to ignore it and eat what you want anyway. And before I unfilled mine, I could never have had this much Fluid in it, I would have been so tight. My band is now 0.2cc off FULL and I can eat an entire sandwich - not a problem really - except that being able to eat a sandwich also means you can eat a Big Mac or a largish plate of Pasta AND have room for something else half an hour later. Choices, definitely. But at first, I found weight loss automatic, it was very dramatic, pretty fast and definitely because of the band. I think some people truly dont get that honeymoon, particularly with the new bands, but I really do think there's a lot of people who just arent listening to what their band and body is telling them too.