Jachut

That's a very good point - eat slowly. It really took me a year for brain and eyes to truly connect. Before that I served myself way too much food every single time becuase I simply couldnt believe it would be enough. You are not really looking to feel full, just not hungry anymore, satisfication takes a while to recognise but you will get there. Till then, what you are doing, measuring, is the sensible option. It just takes time. One day you will be absolutely amazed and probably disgusted by what other people put on their plates. the half cup is not crazy talk - at this point, where it's so important not to put your stomach under strain. As you heal, it probably wont be enough and personally, since the early days I've never been able to get by on a scant half cup and I've never needed to. And in truth, if you're losing weight eating more like two cups at a time and you're not stuffing yourself to get that in, them what's the problem? The more you can eat, and still lose weight, the better nourished you will be. I find mosst of my meals are about three quarters to a cup at a time

I had a BMI of 35 I think, I only just scraped in, but thankfully my doc is of the view that why wait till I got even fatter? And I live in Australia so none of those insane insurance companies - here, if the doc will do it, insurance will cover it. I lost about 40lb too in the first few months, the band has worked brilliantly for me. I went on to lose 120lb whereas I really only "needed" to lose about 80 but I've gotten down to a BMI of 20.

Mine is routinely that low and my heart rate usually 48 or 50 beats a minute. Its not a big deal but whilst i had my ileostomy it was even lower due to dehydration, which can be chronic with an ileostomy.

Mine is routinely that low and my heart rate usually 48 or 50 beats a minute. Its not a big deal but whilst i had my ileostomy it was even lower due to dehydration, which can be chronic with an ileostomy.

I think the thing is people get frustrated. You're right, if you really could control your eating you wouldnt have needed the surgery. But if surgery and the possiblility of mucking it up isnt enough to keep you on the straight and narrow, I really dont know what anyone can say to you. Everyone goes through it, true, but really, how committed were you? Were you ready for this? That's not judgemental but for heaven's sake, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back on the program. Support is not going to come in the guise of people validating what you're doing. That does you absolutely not good. Support comes from people suggesting what you can do to make this easier. Just becuase you're on liquids is no reason you have to starve. Liquids can be calorific, contain fat and Protein and keep your body going. Make yourself some Soup with real meat and some Pasta in it, for example, blend it up really well, thin it out with broth to a consistency you can handle now, and have as much of it as you can handle at a time, as often as you need not to be hungry. Make a real smoothie with real fruit, yogurt and milk rather than a Protein shake, get some fibre into yourself to feel some satisfaction. You can even blend up family dinners with broth to get the flavour or real food - NO food is off limits, just in solid form! There. There is no reason to go hungry. And as for "wanting to chew something" as so many people say, you just have to suck it up. Its only a couple of weeks.

Well, I havent ever regained weight - I've not given up the exercise and I believe that's the secret. I continue to challenge myself, change it up and work really really hard. I will never stop doing that. However, I know what you mean about motivation dropping off, I dont have the same focus I had, but then in lots of ways that's good, eating has taken a back seat in my life, like for normal people! I do keep in touch with my clinic and have had a small fill about once a year since year 3 - I'm six years out. I need to keep that fill where it is, or I do notice over time I eat more/faster. Its just about staying focussed on it, not as much as we were in the early phase, but dont just leave it in there and forget about it. Maintaining your weight involves keeping organised and sensible about what you eat and continuing to exercise. And there's no secret to getting that back, you just have to do it.

Tiny bites, and yeah, it falls apart when you eat it so slowly. I dont do that well with anything like that that you trditionally eat with your hands, as you tend to need to take large fast bites before it falls apart.

I adore greek food, particularly becuase I love lamb, and its probably the most popular red meat in Australia, we Aussies love it. I love greek flavourings but my kids call it "armpit meat", lol. My brother in law is greek and man, does he know how to makea souvlaki - mmmmm, lamb, authentic greek pita, olives, red onion, home grown tomato and feta topped with tzasiki, droooooooooool.

Metameucil can help you if you're constipated too - it bulks up and softens stools. It acts like a sponge to soak up liquid and form a gel. If you have diarrhoe and its all moving through too fast and your colon isnt absorbing the Water, metameucil taken with as little water as possible will soak up the Fluid in your digestive tract, bulk it all up and make it soft and mushy - which makes it firmer than the diarrhoea and gives you more control and less urgency. If on the other hand you're constipated because its all sitting around in your colon too long, and too much water is being absorbed, then taking metameucil with a lot fo fluid will provide a bulkier digestive system content, that's larger and softer and less likely to sit there. Which prevents so much water being asorbed from the waste by your colon and thus eases constiipation. But in that case, you also need lots of INsoluble fibre - fruit and vegie skins,seeds, nuts, wholegrains - those will woosh it all through fast before it can dry out too much and cause you problems. Other foods to eat if you've got diarrhoe are the ones which contain a lot of soluble fibre, which is what metameucil is - white bread, white rice, crackers, plain pureed apple, bananas and Pasta. Which is going against what most Americans with lapbands are told to eat and certainly goes against what we're told for general health so its probably better just to take metameucil,

Good day to ask! It was Fathers Day here in Australia, so we went out for Breakfast. I didnt order a meal, I shared DH's (he's banded to) and had a few tastes of the cheese kransky (sausages that in general, you may as well just shove down your aorta and get your heart attack over and down with right there on the spot), some of his eggs, and I cleaned up my son's half grilled tomato and some of his mushrooms. I had a skinny latte and about 1/4 of a piece of the yummy ciabatta toast. All in all, a tiny meal if you put it all on a plate, but I was very full! But did I come home, wait till it had gone down a bit and then think "well I've blown it today, I'll help DH with his father's day choccies? No, I didnt. That feeling of having had a big meal (even though it really wasnt, and would do no damage at all to my diet) really derails me, I still do that I've blown it now I may as well really have some fun thing. But in the end we were busy and I didnt eat again till late afternoon, when I had a little tub of fruit right before I went to the gym. There I did 25 minutes of really hard intervals on the elliptical, 25 minutes of easier interevals on the treadmill and a body pump class. Had a healthy dinner and when DH bought out more choccies and a bottle of Baileys later that night, I said no to both.

OMG I've done this and will never ever do it again. Mine was one Saturday morning, my daughter had a swimming lesson, we were running late (slept in), I just grabbed a similar thing, little weetbix bites which are like little pillows and ate about six of them in the car on the way. When we got to swimming, she got in the pool, DH and I settled to watch and DH bought me a coffee. Well! That coffee hit the dry cereal and it all swelled up and before I knew it, I was spending the entire half hour lesson bent over the toilet, with little kids going "what is wrong with that lady mummy?" And mummy saying "she's just pregnant darling". Lol. Thank goodness it was only a five minute drive home, so I could get to my own bathroom and continue throwing up for another 2 hours. for the same reason, although i can eat bread quite easily, I never ever ever eat it with soup!

For me, snacking comes the minute I sit down and start mucking around on the computer or have any other "down time" like that. So I stay busy. At the moment, I'm not working full time as I was unable to apply for any teaching contracts because I had to have chemo - it was impossible to work around. I orginally got fat in large part from being at home with my kids and this year again my eating habits were sliding with all the time at home on my own. I actually ended up getting myself a job coaching gymnastics a day a week whilst still having chemo, and also some relief teaching work (I was going to wait till chemo had finished). I was sick, had diarrhoea and an ileostomy but I really needed to work - both for my mental health and to get out of the house and away from the cookie jar. I have 3 kids so there's always plenty to do in the house. I make it a point never to sit down, pure and simple. I potter around and make myself keep up to date with ironing, cleaning out cupboards, keeping the bathrooms spotless, whatever, just throughout the danger part of the day which to me is after lunch through till dinner, I just keep moving and busy. The days when I dont get a call for relief teaching I go out, stay out of the house as long as possible, see a movie, visit someone, window shop, whatever. I go to the gym, and spend hours there. Whatever it takes, I just avoid my trigger situation - sitting around. I also took up knitting, lol, so at least when I do sit, I am keepign my hands busy. I dont have a problem with after dinner snacking unless hubby derails me and brings out a bottle of liqueur or something like that. But if you're going to snack - plan it. My biggest downfall is snacking on snack foods - there's really no reason in the world not to have a bowl of Soup or somethign healthy like that that will actually fill you -whereas I can eat chips like I could pre band. Recently, I have had to break my three meals no Snacks rule - since I had my ileostomy closed six weeks ago, my digestive system is in tatters, it is so sensitive. I cannot handle a "meal" anymore, I cant eat that much at one time. Even with a band, a band size meal causes me bloating, foul gas and a lot of pain and discomfort. So I'm a six times a day eater. I've never been an advocate of this, becuase I tend to overeat when I do it, but I've created myself a good stock of healthy 200 calorie mini meals and I've actually lost weight - not really the aim. And my guts are much calmer. So I've planned out mini meals that contain good nutrients and continue to mentally do this with whatever's in the fridge and the house. I never ever just grab.

Its not dumping syndrome, but you may need more soluble fibre. Its difficult, because soluble fibre foods are the ones we're taught to stay away from but having spent the past 9 nonths with an ileostomy which has just been reversed, metamucil is BRILLIANT for firming up your bowel motions and slowing down transit. It bulks it up. What you do is mix two teaspoons full of it into a dash of cold Water and skull it, each time you eat, dont take it with a heap of water. Although I would check with your doctor since you're newly banded - it *could* swell up in your pouch and cause you problems, but I get it through my band now with no issues. The other option is to add Benefibre to everythign you can - that's soluble fibre also. Stay away from much insoluble fibre - fruit skins, vegie skins, wholegrain bread, nuts, seeds etc. I'm having the same issue after ileostomy reversal - after a surgery on your digestive system, it can get hypersensitive and I find that I eat and 15 minutes later I need to go, or more commonly I blow up like a puffer fish with gas, and have pain and bloating all afternoon. But the fibre will prevent solve the actual diarrhoea, if not the frequency.

I cant allay your fears about the problems continuing now that you've had an issue, I guess you can only be positive about the fact that the band is in position, and that's one major problem that hasnt occurred. As to success with not gaining whilst unfilled - well that is doable. I was unfilled for over 6 months and then took 3 months to get back to my normal level and I didnt gain weight. Well.... that's not strictly true, but I only regained weight that I lost - about 8 lb - I got way way too skinny from being absolutely ultra careful and exercising like a maniac whilst having chemo. I regained that weight, but I'm still 10lb lighter than when I got unfilled last year. I just continued with what I knew worked and whilst I definitely at more with no fill, I made sure that "more" was made up things like salads, fruit and wholegrain bread - all light, low calorie, no fat kinda foods, and kept my portions of Protein and fat foods at banded size. I lost significant weight doing that as whilst I'd had fill, I'd slipped into a slider food routine and was eating a lot of calorie dense foods like cookied, too much full fat yogurt, Soups which I didnt hesitate to add cream to, all that sort of thing. Once I cut that out and replaced with salads, fruit and bread, I said bye bye to about 20lb remarkably quickly - and I was at a BMI of 22 to begin with! My routine is generally an hour of hard cardio about five days a week and about three strenght sessions (sand bag circuit training or Body Pump classes using pretty heavy weights). Chemo/radiation and a big surgery in which I was given an ileostomy helped to keep that weight down, but a lot of it was my hard work. It can be done! And at the very least, its much better to only gain a little than a lot. Dont just give up whatever you do.

Lol helen, I am in despair over my post rectal cancer/chemo breasts. They're very very sad. But I tell you one thing, I aint trussing them up in an ugly bra. I'm enjoying at leasdt being able to fit into pretty bras!

I never got sea sick before being banded, but now I get very sea sick and sick on amusement park rides, and car sick too! Anyhow, I hate coming home from a holiday and feeling fat and having gained weight! it spoils the entire holiday. I would trade a thousand times over being able to eat anything for the feeling of control and knowing I'm not going home fat. Nothing tastes as good as that feels to me. That's also why you would have seen me running around the ship's perimeter (if you could have gotten me on it in the first place), or in the ship's gym every day.

I never had a problem with this with my doc, he filled me every time I requested with only a little discussion about how I'd been doing. If I'd lost well, but felt I had done so with supreme sacrifice and willpower, then he filled me. Over the years, the practice has changed and doctors come and go and my surgeon has a whole lot of different doctors working for him now. Since I went back last year to be unfilled for my bowel resection, I've had a lot of trouble with this doc. She gave me a spiel to calm my anxiety about being refilled, about how everyone needs their fill and I could fill back up three weeks after the surgery and we'd get me back to a comfortable spot and to just hang on till then and hope that with the big surgery I had to go through, I wouldnt gain. I didnt gain, but when I went back, she wouldnt fill me! She kept saying I wasnt overweight, I didnt need fill. I had to gain 10lb before I coudl talk her into one - even then she said "but you've just gotten back to wehre you were, you havent gained real weight". I had to stand on my head, scream and shout and throw a damn tantrum about how hard it was to maintain this weight with no fill at all, how month by month I was slowly losing the battle as a pound went on here and there. Once I got her to give me a fill, she wasnt so difficult about filling me to just shy of my previous level but she wouldnt let me go back to where I was - I've no idea why. Last week *I'd had enough, I am really fighting to stay at this weight, I'm so darn hungry all the time and can eat anything as if I have no fill at all, so I made an appointment with a different doctor instead. She was great when I explained how I was feeling and I've even got an appointment for two weeks time in case THIS last fill back to my previous level isnt enough. What I'm finding is that being refilled after being emptied, my band doesnt quite feel the same, its not giving me the same restriction and this second doctor said that can happen, whereas the first was so pig headed about it, and wasnt listening to MY experience of things. The moral of the story is that all doctors have different attitudes to this. Its not so easy for you guys to chop and change docs like we can here, so be prepared to really state your case if you want that fill. Explain how hard you're workign to lose that weight, and how you're getting hungrier between meals, how you can eat anything etc.

There's nothing wrong with a treat occasionally - there's nothing wrong with frozen yogurt OR ice cream OR chocolate even, if you dont eat it all the time. I'm everlastingly grateful that ice cream and frozen yogurt just dont interest me. I had a tub of ice cream in my freezer for the entire four years that I lived in one place! Its one diet killer that assails you at every corner and thankfully one I never even stop to consider giving into. I'm also extremely glad that since Krispy Kremes opened here, those things absolutely STINK when they're cooking, they taste foul and bland and they're not even what an Aussie would call a real donut - that has to be piping hot, with 3rd degree burn inducing jam in the middle that spurts all over you when you bite it and rolled in sugar and cinnamon mmmmmmmm And oh! those fresh baked Cookies in the shopping centre, the aroma, the choc chips still all melty, mmmmmmmm sorry to start a food porn thread, lol. Any of those things is absolutely fine as a very occasional treat.

I think this is a real phenomenon, as is pregnancy brain and as I've discovered recently, so is chemo brain. After a couple of surgeries, three pregnancies and six months of chemo, I dont think I have much brain left! I lost my car at the shopping centre yesterday. I was seriously ready to go and report it stolen. I couldnt even retrace my steps because I had absolutely and utterly no memory of arriving at the mall, which door I'd gone in, etc. I just stood there stupidly turning around in circles. It took me about 40 minutes to walk up and down every single level and aisle. Then I remembered I'd left it to be hand washed and cleaned out - D'oh!

I set my own goal, my surgeon never even mentioned one. The focus was more losing weight to get healthy. At 5ft 10, I have spent a lot of my adult life at about 180 and I know for me that's pretty beefy, its definitely plus size territory and I was so unhappy with that weight that I dieted myself fat over a period of about ten years. I'd reached 160 once or twice and knew that was okaaaaaaay, not brilliant, still a bit plump, so I aimed for 150. I got there pretty easily and maintained that easily. Post chemo I was as low as 130, pretty darn skinny, now I'm sitting around 140 and its perfect for me. I love this weight, I've definitely been called slim and thin lately and to be honest, that's what I wanted - to be slim. I wasnt happy with 150, great as an achievement as it was, I'm a perfectionist. So..... yeah, I set my own goal and decided where I liked beign the most. I've seen my lapband doc quite a lot this year to refill from my big surgery last November and I think she thinks I should be heavier because I've had to argue long and hard to get my band refilled at ALL, so I've changed to a different doctor in the clinic, one who's a bit more on my page. This is my body, my band and within the limits of healthy attitudes to food and exercise, I think I should be able to use it the way I want to. Not filling me because I wasnt overweight is ridiculous.

I've regained a little too but I think its a combination of a simple return to health and the result of all my efforts at Body Pump. I knew I was skeletal after chemo finished and I wanted to make sure that I put muscle back on, not fat. But overall I'm still much lighter than I was this time last year and pretty thin, I just feel fat because I did buy some size six clothes whilst I was so light and now they give me a muffin top :-( 10lb on my body is a LOT of weight now, I can feel it, but I'm still a good 10lb lighter than I was before cancer struck. I'm finding the biggest challenge this far out (six years) is that I really think my body has adapted to my band and it doesnt work the way it once does, possibly because I've been totally unfilled and then refilled (for surgery) int he past nine months. I am finding more and more that its just plain hard work to keep the weight away, its my hard work. I still exercise, more than ever in fact and every single day is a "diet". Every day I say no to foods I want to eat and fight cravings. I'm not sure if just another tiny fill would solve that, because its rather tiring. I can do it, I'm not afraid of weight gain but I have this tool, am I not using it to full potential? Even this far out, I dont really know.

And we actually have laughing cow cheese here, lol! I love the stuff.

It can take a long time. I "only" had a BMI of 36 and I had to lose over 40 lb before anyone really noticed and before I reliably went down a clothing size! I was pretty astounded about the clothing size thing I must say. It was really 60lb before people were saying all over the place wow youv'e lost weight. Early on you probably look a bit different to people but they're not sure enough to say something. To get what I'd call thin - ie. no big fat rolls on the gut, no muffin top, able to wear whatever I pleased and not shop in the plus sized stores, I had to get well under a BMI of 25. People are different, I'm very tall so I remained a plus size for a very long time, the top of my healthy weight range is still plus sized (which starts in Australiai afrom your size 12) for me. All those things amazed me because I had in my head that to be say 20lb overweight was "not that ft" but really, it is! That's the other thing, people often post here that they're disappointed, they've lost 50lb and they still look fat. Well, if you've got 100 to lose, of course you do, you're 50lb overweight. You need to get your mind set to enjoy your achievements regardless of appearance because that reward really only comes late in the picture.

To me, it kind of is. I mean someone said above and I agree that you get satisfied before you get full - for me, I get the same warm, full tummy kind of pleasure. But you have to learn to recognize it becuase it often comes way way before your eyes and your head are satisfied. And one bite, one tiny bite can tip that over into real pain and discomfort. This comes with time. It took me literally two years to be able to serve myself a teeny tiny meal and think that it would be enough. Now I've gone too much the other way and really have to remember not to starve my poor teenage sons, who can eat literally four times what I put on their plates. I serve them tiny dinners and then yell at them for getting into the snack foods after dinner.

It seems outrageous to me now, but i was put on Duromine as a teenager, when I was a whopping 180lb at 5ft 10. Not even obese! Overweight, yeah, but not obese. For me personally, having a lapband is nothing like that. It was similar for the first eight to ten weeks, where I forgot to eat, took no real pleasure in or had no interest in food. That was fantastic, the weight literally melted off me. But over time, my appetite returned. Six years later, I have a normal appetite, it just takes a smaller meal to satisfy it. But I have the same between meal cravings, the eating for inappropriate reasons, the same responses that I ever had. I have simply learned to tip the balance so that I give into them less often, but ever day is work for me. So its important to realise that you wont have a lot of physical hunger - i can go all day without eating and not feel particularly "hungry" but you will have an appetite, which is a different thing. I often think my band is doing nothing, but if I"m working and therefore busy, a 1000 calorie day's eating is easy for me and brings absolutely no hunger with it, if I"m at home, I want to eat all darn day because its there and I can. I also rely a lot more on heavy exercise for weight control than you have to when you eat virtually nothing. I wouldnt swap it. Duromine made me completely mental, hyper, it was awful stuff and its absolutely diabolical for your health too. Its dangerous and addictive and I wouldnt touch anything like that. A lapband, assuming its properly functioning, does not otherwise affect your body's functioning and its long term, so you dont get weight regain. But you do have to take responsibility for your choices and actions, it wont work that well if you dont work it well.