Shinyhappymommy

Are you still losing weight?

I had over 140 to lose, 143 I think. I was banded in February and by my 6 month mark I had lost 80 pounds. I think it'll be close to a year, no more than 18 months by the time I'm at goal. It's certainly do-able, but you have to work at it. You have to make good food choices and you have to get active and healthy. If you make a lifestyle change, the band will help you do so. It's been such a great thing for me!

Honestly that's the one band rule I don't follow. I usually drink right before I eat. My band is fairly loose, so I don't worry about the Water sticking around and making me get full faster. The reason I usually drink right before the meal is that I haven't remembered to drink water for a while and I want to get it in before I have to wait after eating for a while.

I don't drink alcohol, so this hasn't been an issue for me. I was wondering the other day if banded people can still drink beer, or if it's too fizzy. I guess it's carbonated, so should be on the no-drink list?

You did it!!!!! I'm so happy for you. What finally broke your plateau? I'm still working on mine, it seems.

I would be more than happy to mentor anyone who needs it. There were so many need-a-mentor posts on here that I didn't know who to pick, so I'm putting my availability out there and you guys can let me know if we'd be a good match. I'm a 36 year old mother of three. I live in rural Kansas, but hopefully not much longer. I started my band journey at 303 pounds, having peaked at 311 before getting pregnant with my baby #3. I had surgery in Denver, Colorado, on February 8th, 2008. I have had almost no complications and wake up every day almost giddy about the change this has made in my life. I've lost 80 pounds as of yesterday and have 63 or so more to go. My approach to the band may be a little different than some, so here's where I'm coming from. I'm very afraid of getting overfilled. I believe that an overfill is the source of so many different problems, I just really want to avoid it. I have that luxury, since at my current restriction I'm still losing weight. I'm not what you'd consider tight. I've been able to eat everything I've tried, even a bagel, or bun. (though those aren't common choices for me.) I'm at 7 ccs in a 10 cc band. I've only had two fills to get me to that point. I believe in being able to eat a reasonable portion of healthy foods and doing that has helped me be able to lose the weight I have lost so far. I can eat a fairly normal sized plate of food for a meal, so I try hard to make sure I'm making good choices about what that food is. I'm not plagued by constant cravings for junk food, though after my recent two-week vacation, I've had to employ some willpower to get out of the habit of eating less-than healthy foods. If we sound like we'd be a good match, let me know and we can set up a buddy/mentor situation.

I'm glad you had that experience. Yes, the first few weeks should be about healing, and the weight loss is supposed to be a bonus, but who among us wasn't anxious to see that scale move. It is hard to be hungry, so when you are, you should eat. Try to follow your doctor's guidelines as closely as you can, but I think it's important to eat when you are truly body hungry.

Jamie, Way to go. I love the happy look on your face in the progress pics. It says a lot.

To answer that last question, I decided it was time for a fill when in between meals, my mind started drifting more and more to food and I was "seeking out" food (in between meals) more than usual. "Seeking out food" is a term that I've heard used in conjunction with knowing if you're needing a fill. Also, even after I was full from eating, I would still be thinking about food, and what I could eat next, etc. So that was a lack of satiety bothering me as well. I just don't think that being able to eat more than you thought you should by itself should be a reason to get a fill. There are reasons to get fills, like not losing weight anymore, lack of satiety, more interest in sweets, etc., as well as others I'm sure I'm not thinking of. Hopefully others will give input as well.

For those who are familiar with my posts, I know I sound like a broken record, but it is a message that needs to be heard. If you're losing weight, able to eat a good sized portion of food and you don't have things get stuck, why would you want your band to be tighter? I know you've been warned with the whole band-slipping thing. I have worried about that as well, but I think as long as I'm not eating until I'm uncomfortably full, I'll be fine. I've been able to eat what I'd consider a full meal, with a 1/2 to 1 chicken breast, or a fillet of tilapia, and a serving of veggies and a small salad. I wondered if I should be eating that much, but honestly it was what I needed to be satisfied and I wasn't eating past being full. (I know there's probably a whole range of deciding when you're full, but I wasn't eating until extremely full.) I was certainly eating more than 1/2 cup of food. We seem to get it into our heads that a chicken nugget should make us feel like we just ate a huge feast. Well, I don't know about you, but 1/3 of what I eat in a day better be more than something the size of a chicken nugget or I'm not getting enough food for my body. My advice is to make sure you're making good choices about what to eat, eat until comfortably full, and if that keeps you losing weight, then you're in a pretty sweet spot! Don't mess with a good thing. Being tighter doesn't always net a better weight loss. Fewer calories can result in a slow-down of your weight loss. Just because you have the band doesn't mean you need to suffer through pbs, sliming, vomiting, GURD, etc. Those can happen when we're not careful in our eating, but if you're being careful, none of those things need ever happen. If they do, frequently, then that person is likely overfilled. Good luck in your decision.

parul, I just read through the rest of your posts to get an idea of where you're coming from. If you can't eat more than 4 tsp of solid food, and eating solid foods hurt, then you absolutely shouldn't get a fill. In fact, you should talk to your surgeon about a possible unfill. You should be able to eat solid food, and also much more than a few spoonfuls. The band isn't meant to be forced starvation.

What is the milk diet? I've never heard of it before. What does it entail? It looks to me like this must be your pre-op diet. That's a bummer that the reunion coincides with the pre-op stuff. I'd check with your surgeon and see if he'll give you the all-clear to have that one day off. If not, then I would stick with what he's told you. If you can't handle being there and not straying from you pre-op diet, then I wouldn't go, if I were you. But then again, I hated my last high school reunion. Hated it. I was fat and unhappy. None of my friends were there. We left early. Good luck!

For me it has been true that if I keep a reasonable fill I am able to tolerate everything. Even things you're warned about like celery, broccoli, pineapple. None of those have gotten stuck. Where you might run into trouble is if you prefer a pretty tight fill so that you're not able to tolerate a lot of foods. Some people approach the band that way. I choose to keep it looser. That is what has worked for me.

ovahkummer, I finally realized what your avatar picture is. I love that. I've felt like that person inside for years. Keep it up. Sounds like you're doing great. The "victory" feeling is so amazing. There will be days where it's fleeting, but overall it has been present for the last six months for me. I hope it continues for you. Just keep doing what you know you should be doing. :tt2: Bulldogger, Congratulations on making such a big choice in your life. I don't have any experience with the whole Mexican experience, but there are many around here who do. As far as after the surgery, my advice is to have someone there who is dedicated to taking care of you and helping you. Don't try to rush into getting back to regular life until you feel ready. Give yourself time to heal. The first few days after my surgery are kind of a blur. I ended up not getting a prescription for pain meds, so it was just liquid Tylenol. I slept a lot. I have a pretty low pain threshold too, so if I survived, I think anyone can. Good luck and let us know how things go.

Well, I'm doing the two days of higher calorie eating, today is day 2. I am not going all out crazy, just adding a few things that I normally wouldn't/shouldn't eat. I don't really think it has anything to do with yesterday's eating, but I did see 219 on the scale this morning. That was new territory for me. I'm not celebrating just yet, though. I want to make sure it's a trend and not a random fluctuation down, only to come back up again. Also, I'm very excited that my body is still getting to be smaller during all of this. I'm sitting here typing this, wearing a size 16 pair of capris. Now, usually I can't get 16s done up, but these are up and wearable. Maybe I should go back and try the ones I tried on a couple of weeks ago that were still too tight. Bit by bit. We're getting there.

Water intake. That's something I can really focus on. Today I didn't even get in my 64 oz, (yet, anyway), so I could certainly do better. I'm trying to be patient with knowing that working out can have an effect, but here I am a month later wondering how long it's going to last. I think I'll try having a couple of days off from strict eating and see how that goes. I don't imagine I'll go all out, but maybe I'll make some zucchini bread and have a blizzard or something. I am in a diet rut, I've had cottage cheese and cantaloupe for breakfast 95% of the time for the last couple of weeks. It's just so yummy, I'm not interested in eating anything else. Cantaloupes are so good right now, too. I think it's good practice to eat fruits and vegetables that are in season. They're so much tastier and also have the nutrients that our bodies need during that time of year. Citrus in the winter, etc. But anyway, I'll try to come up with some new ideas for meals. What I love about this is that I'm not about to give up. I'm not on a diet. I've made a change for the rest of my life and so this is just a little bump in the road. I'm so grateful for that perspective.

I'm starting another thread dedicated to the discussion of plateaus. I accidentally posted it here as a response instead of a new thread. So I'm editing it to be a new post.

Katja, It would be outrageous if it was legitimate. This is a joke. Nobody is banding babies, or doing liposuction on them. I got a chuckle out of it. I especially liked this part: Employment Opportunities If you are an attractive, single female between the ages of 18 and 25 and looking for an exciting career as a medical assistant, please contact us to arrange a personal interview with Dr. Jeffery.

No offense taken. There are various answers you can find out there regarding breastfeeding and anesthesia. It seems that recent research has been done and has shown that the anesthesia isn't as dangerous as once thought. Also, the point was made that infants are given the same anesthesias for surgery. Of course, you'd have to take the size and age of your baby into account. I wouldn't have been so confident in nursing a much smaller baby so soon. Whatever the case, it doesn't hurt to err on the side of caution. However, it would have really overwhelmed me not to be able to nurse for 24 hours, so I found information that worked for me. Each person should do the research and decide for themselves what is best for them and their babies. Also, that's good advice about lifting. My surgeon was very lax about it, but I've since figured out he's lax about a lot of things, some of which are pretty serious. So in retrospect, I probably should have exercised more caution there too. Whatever you do, good for you for breastfeeding. I'm a huge fan!

What are you concerned about exactly? Why wouldn't you be able to continue nursing since he's older? Now, you might not get the kind of support and enthusiasm you would from the hospital staff about nursing a toddler (versus a smaller baby) because people don't generally expect that, or even sometimes understand it. If you want to keep nursing, there's no reason to stop just because of this surgery. I nursed my little guy right up until they were ready to take me back, and then I nursed him again maybe 4 hours after surgery. I was supposed to pump and dump, but pumping yielded only enough to maybe drip into the sink, there was no dumping. So then I nursed him and he did fine. Dad said he slept like a log through the night which was a blessing for Dad. :biggrin: Here is a link to one article and the text of another small article on the topic. It really looks like nursing after anesthesia isn't a big deal--especially where your little one isn't so little. Breastfeeding and Anesthesia And from the Ask Dr. Sears website: "I am having surgery in a few weeks and am breastfeeding my 7-month-old. She still nurses quite frequently and I am worried because my doctor says I can't breastfeed her for 24 hours after surgery because of the anesthesia medications. What can I do to make this easier?" You actually CAN breastfeed within 2 to 4 hours after surgery. The reason most doctors say to wait 24 hours is that they were trained before anyone every studied anesthetics in breast milk. Well, this has now been researched and shown that the levels of anesthetic medication used in general anesthesia do not significantly persist in the breast milk beyond a couple hours. The little that does remain for the rest of the day is so minute, that it will have no noticeable effect on the baby. My wife went through gallbladder surgery when our second son was a year old and still an avid nurser. Here is what she did. She pumped her breasts 4 hours after surgery and we threw this away. She then breastfed him on demand after that. Why "pump and dump" at four hours? There is really no good reason. We just did it to be extra safe. In reality, any medicine that gets into the milk during this time will move back out of the milk by four hours. But to make your doctor and the nurses happy, I suggest doing the 4-hour pump and dump. Any pain medications you receive after surgery are also safe during breastfeeding. For younger infants who will need to feed during or right after surgery, pump some milk beforehand to be fed through a bottle. (end of article) As far as how to deal with the lifting thing, I'd check with my surgeon, because nursing or not, you will need to be able to lift your child. I got clearance to lift my 20 pound baby as soon as I needed to. I did have a lot of help, though, and dh did most of the lifting for the first few days. Do you have someone who can help? Holding your son isn't the same as lifting him. If someone hands him to you, you can hold and nurse him. The only thing that bothered me was that he was laying across my incisions, so I put a pillow on top of my stomach and he lay across that while nursing. Did I answer your questions? Were there any other concerns? Good luck with everything!

Kathy, Sorry you're feeling down. Traveling is hard. You just don't have as much control as normal over what you eat. Plus you haven't even had a fill yet. That does make a difference. I'll bet you did make some choices better than you would have pre-band. Can you find any decisions you made that were a step in the right direction? I'll bet you can! For example, I had a hamburger while traveling, but chose to not eat the top bun. That wasn't something I would have done pre-band. I also didn't order fries, or soda, of course. So, yeah, the burger wasn't the best choice, but I did make it healthier. Find what you did right and focus and build on that. You're right, you do need to make good changes to be successful. For me, I've been motivated as the weight comes off to make better and better choices. Make a game plan for traveling and decide ahead of time how you're going to get some exercise, and healthy food choices. That way maybe most of the trip will be good, and the parts that aren't as healthy won't make as big of an impact. Hang in there. Melissa

So how is everybody doing?

Don't be afraid that you can eat a cup or more. That's not bad, as long as it's healthy food. The key is whether or not you can continue losing weight while eating that amount. If you can eat healthy portions and still lose weight, why go tighter? If you aren't losing weight then you should check with your surgeon on whether or not you need a fill. I have the same thing with my band, sometimes things will stick more than others. I think our restriction fluctuates due to many different reasons.

I think you pinpointed why I'm worry. At every point in this journey I've worried that the success would stop and everything would go away. Like it's too good to be true. I want to have the peace of feeling like it's not over.