coolcrystal

Can we also add: * People who are all excited when they are so tight they can "only eat 1-2 bites of food and their done" and the people who congratulate them?! lol. I see this a lot and it irritates the hell out of me. This isn't what the band is about and I can't believe some folks think its okay to starve themselves. They aren't learning to properly eat. Does their doctor okay this?

Good luck! it is a little nervewrecking at first when you are sitting there and getting prepped and they give you that blood thinner shot and sticking stuff everywhere and you are like "what am I doing?" but then you wake up and a week passes and you think "wow, this is great".. and then a few months pass and you've lost weight and feel great... Best of luck to you.. I always call it the day I was re-born... :-)

TJHunter is right.. if you are too tight and barely eating your body is going into starvation mode. The band isn't about being too tight.. it's about eating small meals to help you lose and be healthy. TJ's comment about changing routine is also very true. When I eat the same thing every single day I don't lose as much as I do if I change it up a bit... Good luck to you.

Yeah, I suffer with this also. Tight in the morning... by lunch I'm a little bit more open and can eat tuna, chicken, soups... but by dinner time the gates are wide open!! I wish it was the opposite. Last night I munched on SF jello, romaine lettuce dipped in hummus and then a piece of multigrain toast with hummus and turkey... throughout the night.. and that was on top of the tuna concoction I had at 5:30.. At least my choices aren't bad.. but I think I need another fill.. but, I'm scared if I get a fill I'll be too tight to probably get my protein shakes down in the morning.. :thumbdown:

Ryan Gosling from the Notebook does it for me.. oh man... if I saw him from across the way and he looked into my eyes.. I would probably poop out 30 pounds... HA HA.. ok, gross, but seriously...:thumbdown:

My first fill only lasted for a week. You are going on two weeks now since your first fill, so the effects have probably worn off. It took three fills for me to get a lasting effect... my second fill did absolutely nothing for me.. And even this third fill is starting to wear off.. depending on which band you have, some people have to get several fills to really reach their sweet spot. It will happen.. the best thing to do during this time when you are hungry is to just continue to eat healthy things like chicken, tuna, veggies, etc. It will come.. :thumbdown:

Yeah, one thing that bothers me on this entire forum is people who are excited when they can only eat one spoonful or two and are satisfied... another thing that upsets me is people who congratulate them. This isn't what the band is about... they aren't put in so people can starve themselves... they are put in to teach us to eat a proper amount of food and feel satisfied. Getting the band was suppose to make us be healthier, eat healthier and make healthier choices. I hope in the end you will choose not to be too tight to where you can't use this tool the way it was intended to be used. Good luck. :tongue2:

I think you are right on track girl! Actually, if you look at all the Febsters, those who have lost over 40 are including weight that they lost pre-band.. I think one or two even are including weight they lost on weight watchers 2-3 months before getting banded... so, don't look at others numbers. Plus, we are all still really learning our bands.. it has only been a few months. Some of us are just getting to restriction and some still have no restriction... it takes time, but honestly, 35 pounds is amazing!! I'm short too.. I have huge arms.. huge legs... big butt... I'm only 5'4".... I was talking with my hubby just yesterday about this... and he said that the amount I've lost is really considered a lot, but to me it's nothing because I can't see it since I have so much more to lose. But if you took somebody who was 180 pounds and they lost 35 pounds.. that would put them to 145... There are people who join Jenny Craig to lose 35 pounds. It really is a decent amount...

You know I'll be there with bells on :-) I'll send you a private message to set up that time to meet.. HUGGS

I'm very glad I didn't pick a doctor who does bypass surgeries as well. I don't know how a doctor can do both and be supportive of both surgeries.. either they believe in one or the other. My doctor doesn't believe in the bypass so he doesn't do it. And, your doctor's comment about only getting to 165 is silly. There are tons of people on here who have made it to 135 and below... my friend Dawn, who by the way just had her healthy 8 lb baby boy yesterday! wahooo... was banded three years ago and she started at 235 and got to 130 in about 15 months.

Thank you :-) Just to share a little story... at my wedding two of my very best friends, who happen to be roughly 350 lbs were sitting diagonal from my mother. (My mother is about 130 lbs.) After the dinner my friend came up to me and said that my mom was staring at her periodically "probably because I'm fat" and "watching every bite I was putting into my mouth" and how embarrassed she was to even eat the food because my mother was looking at her. But, when I asked my mother about it she said, "are you talking about the pretty lady with the dark hair? she looked like my best friend in highschool so I kept looking at her face to see if it was her". (They are just a few years apart). My friend was just paranoid and passing her paranoia off on my mother. I hear a lot of my plus sized friends saying that people stare at them or give them dirty looks, but we never know what is going on in people's heads. It could be negative, or it could be positive. When I look through this site I see these beautiful women, the folks just starting their weight loss journey, and the folks who've met it.. I grow to know them, adore them, respect them and a few are annoying, but even the annoying ones (like me!) have heart and they have points to make.. but most of all, we have gone/are going through the same thing with our bands and that bonds us. Nobody is perfect... some people don't know how to say things, me included.. and some blow smoke up our asses... but we are all human. Now, there are mean folks out there, big and little, who will say the most horrific things.... and I'm definitely not making excuses for those kinds. :eek: Jachut - THANKS!!

I'm really surprised they were trying to push the bypass on you when you only have 75 pounds to lose.. that's usually a really drastic surgery for people who have over 150 pounds to lose... If you've done the research on both surgeries, then you have the facts. I love my band and I've seen my friends who've gotten the bypass gain their weight back and deal with dumping syndrome for the rest of their life. I've seen my banded friends have babies... and maintain their weightloss.. is it even possible for a bypass person to have children? can a child get enough nutrients? a bypass is malabsorptive procedure, which means your body does not get everything it needs..... yes, you do lose weight faster, but how healthy is it to lose 20 pounds a month or more? don't let the doctors bully you into getting something you don't need, especially with only 75 pounds to lose.

If it's already been 4 days, it does sound like you are a teenie bit tight. My doctor and dietician said that when you have proper restriction you should be able to eat 7-10 bites of food.. and you shouldn't feel stuck with water.. at the restriction I'm at right now, this is what I can achieve and I'm not miserable. It sounds like your body is going to be deprived with the little you are eating and drinking.. you don't have to be miserable like this. If it's still like this in the next few days I would seriously just have a little bit taken out.

I love dipping multigrain crackers in hummus... YUMMMYYY.. I get a thing of it from Sam's/Costco and it lasts me a long time. You can also dip romaine lettuce in it.. yumm yumm! not really sweet but it is crunchy/salty. lol. that's really the only thing I snack on.. sometimes I have a pickle... or a SF choc. pudding...

I have friends who've had both done. Put it this way, my friends who have had the bypass have gained back most/all of their weight and have suffered severe issues they will have the rest of their life like dumping. My bypass friend whispered in my ear right before my procedure, "I'm glad you are getting the band because for the rest of my life I have to deal with dumping.. I can't even eat a bite of cake"... and she got back up to 220.. she had gotten down to 140 really fast...

My original point exactly... it is irritating when people have to look deeper into things said than need be... even compliments people say wrong. I don't need you to start another thread on my behalf, if I want that done, I can do it myself.... you have every right to choose whichever title you want for your thread wether new or old, this is a free country... but I also have every right to voice my opinion as well. So anybody who doesn't like my opinion can follow the first amendment you stated above and get over it....

I don't think you'll have any issues at all. I do rennaissance festivals and wear heavily steel boned corsets with over 30 stays each in it so tight that I get bruises on my back and I've never had any issues with my port site. I have even asked my doctor about pressure on the port site and he said that shouldn't be a problem. I think a lot of it has to do with how big you are too. Some ports are deeper than others.. My stomach isn't as big as my butt is, so my port is somewhat shallow. Also, apparently the actual port is 1-2 inches from the actual incision line. Oddly, I thought that lumpy thing below the cut was the port, but it was the stitches that hadn't desolved yet and were tender, so perhaps that's what you are feeling.

Yeah I saw two on my cruise last month and I got a chuckle. I think I might get one. LOL

I know you didn't name this thread. I didn't say you did name it.. I was just venting like you said I could... but it seems you got offended afterall... I don't want to cuss at you. lol. I only responded to you because you were the first to respond to my last post... i wasn't making anything personal...

True true... vent away... but I have just as much right to vent as well. Here's my little vent session: Personally I don't like the title of "things skinny people say that piss you off"... I have a lot of "skinny" friends who've never been rude to overweight people. And, I was just as prejudiced against by obese people as apparently the skinny people have picked on ya'll.. so.. I guess I can vent here too.. only it's just the opposite... How would it make you feel if there was a forum and the title of a thread was "things fat people say that piss you off".. End of vent session... It sure feels good to vent :biggrin2:

I guess I'm just not as sensitive as others on here.. If somebody was like "you've lost a ton of weight" I would just take it as being a slang way of saying "you've lost a lot of weight". I mean, I am fat.. period... I'm morbidly obese and though I don't think 30-something pounds is a "ton" of weight (referring to myself), lets say I lost 100 pounds and somebody said that to me, well, from their persective that is a shit load of weight and they are amazed. They don't mean it as an insult, so why should we take it as an insult? Why must we be all paranoid about how people try to compliment us? There's no need for it. Maybe this is why I never felt like I was being made fun of when I was almost 300 pounds.. because I didn't pick apart every statement that was made to me.. and nobody ever deliberately said "you are a fat ass".. yet, for some reason at 125 everybody felt the need to tell me I was anorexic and gross looking (usually obese older women).. like it was more sociably acceptable to pick on the skinny person.. I'm not trying to tell anybody how to react to statements made, but we were/are all obviously obese or we wouldn't have gotten this surgery in the first place.. people are going to react to the weightloss...

I have been told that after an episode like that to do liquids and mushies for two days to get the band settled down due to swelling from the irritation of the throwing up. Also, anytime you feel stuck to never drink because apparently it makes it worse. I have taken too big of bites before where it felt stuck, but I just let it pass on its own.. took about 15 seconds and then I was fine. I do hate that stuck feeling... I haven't mastered the tiny bites yet. Most of the time I'm fine, but every now and again I will try to swallow a bite like how I use to eat.

So, it happened and now you need to move on and realize it doesn't have to happen. I was rebellious too after my surgery.. I started eating tuna day 7 when I was suppose to be eating cream soups, but I was wide open and hungry. You have zero restriction right now, so it makes sense. Don't be pissed at yourself anymore. I'ts weird that moment when you finally get into that mindset of "i'm going to do it"... and there's really nothing anybody can tell you that will make you want to do it, only you can. But when you finally get into that zone, it's wonderful isn't it? You will get to that place, especially when you get those fills. As I've stated earlier, I'm a firm believer in allowing yourself that naughty snack every now and again, I think by allowing that I can follow a healthier diet overall throughout the week. Last night for mother's day dinner I had a small portion of grilled chicken and lettuce dipped in hummus... but for dessert I allowed myself 3 bites of a piece of rum cake. Do I feel guilty? No! I want to live a normal life like normal people and normal people usually have a FULL piece of rum cake. So, get over the guilt from last night and start today. And again, I don't think there is anything wrong with every now and again having a chile rilleno.. or some dessert.. others might disagree with my theory, but again, I'm consistently losing weight every week.. not a crapload like 5 pounds a week or anything (nor would I want to), but I am losing 2-3 pounds a week.. I don't count my calories.. I don't do some point system.. I stick with Protein.. veggies... some carbs... some naughty stuff every now and again.. and it works for me!

I was actually writing this same issue after I got banded as well. It is perfectly normal to go up a few pounds especially getting back to normal foods like mushies. And I'm going to tell you the same thing that was told to me.. you are healing, so any weight you lose for the first month is a plus. Think about it, if you were put on a liquid diet before hand and now you are going to regular foods, or even if you didn't do a liquid diet before hand, you had to do clear fluids for the first week after surgery and now you are doing mushies, then you will gain. You might also gain by not eating enough calories because your body will go into starvation mode. If I were you, I'd just stay off the scale for the next two weeks... trust me.. it will go up and down and it might even not move for three weeks like what happened with me.. but it does go down eventually. Hang in there!

Here are things we eat with chicken: 1. Blackeyed peas (I put salsa over mine as it tastes really good). 2. Hummus with romaine lettuce stalks dipped in it.. i also dip my chicken in the hummus.. makes it go down really nice! 3. Sauteed Mushrooms with a little bit of garlic and butter.. 4. Mashed cauliflower with light sourcream and parmesan cheese 5. Sweet Snow peas