RestlessMonkey

We stopped for chicken strips and a big mac, ok? Geez you're meaner than my surgeon.

Until you get restriction (and once you're through the post op healing phase diet) eating out won't really be a problem...some people make a production of ordering of the kid's menu etc...but you can just eat like a female and it'll work! Not drinking with meals is NBD for me..if you don't mention it most people won't even notice. Sometimes I'll even say "this iced tea was so good but I'm stuffed...can I have a "to go" glass for it? One thing though; when we eat out I eat more slider type foods...I don't pick something that I think might get stuck. So for Mexican I go cheese enchiladas (I can eat most of one) , no fajitas (for example) but you'll find what works for you! OH get some Papaya enzymes (if you haven't already heard of them) They are tablets with papain (and some, like my formulation I have, has cellulase and lipase) it aids in digestion and can help resolve many "stuck" episodes (depending on how badly you are "stuck") without you having to PB or vomit the food back up. So if you are out and feel "irky" discreetly chewing a couple can really really help! Just be careful not to be talking and forget to chew well! It'll become second nature fairly soon!

Well I advanced to mushies and I feel better now. K?

damn...only 2 out of three. Oh well I've had it 8 hours now and I love it.

My doc "strongly recommended" EAS Carb Control AdvantEDGE shakes and I use them...I don't LOVE them but they are just a Protein shake...I didn't expect to really like any of them! My "secret" is I don't snack (boy was that hard!) I eat anything I want to during a meal (lasts 30 min and no more) then no snacking. It is working so far! And I am a "teller"...I've told everyone. It was a little hard because I didn't really start losing until this May when i hit my sweet spot, but it's just not in me to keep it to myself. Everyone has been great, supportive, some have been curious (for themselves or a loved one) no one has been nasty, hateful etc. That's my personality though. I can't imagine anyone saying, to my face, that this is the easy way out etc (and some other BS I've read people are told). I'm a friendly outgoing type but pretty smart and usually the one people ask advice of, not give advice to! LOL So telling works. But it's individual!

exercise is great for our health..and can be another great tool. BUT skin is an organ...exercise exercises muscles underneath the skin. They can pump up some and fill areas where we've lost some fat...they can tone and tighten and look better underneath the skin, but exercise will not diminish skin. Time and whatever inherent elasticity will do that, if it's going to happen. AND losing slow won't make a difference....people may think that but the skin will tighten up on it's own schedule. Say you lose 100 pounds in 2 years and are tight, or lose 100 pounds in 1 year and then the skin keeps on tightening...at 2 years you'll be the same. Slower loss may let your skin "keep up" but it won't end up any tighter than it would if you lost more quickly. (think of a brand new balloon. Blow it up. let the air out fast or slow...it's still stretched some and won't ever be like it was)

Does your mom REALLY think that it's healthier for you to weigh 268 than to have some loose skin? REALLY? Or is that masking another worry of hers? Loose skin depends on many things including age, genetics, general health, life style, how fat you WERE, how LONG you were that fat, etc. The younger you are, the healthier, the less likely you are to have bad issues. However if you are like many of us, weighing 269 at age 29...(I weighed 186 at age 28...just as an FYI) means that unless you are one of the rare ones who diets and it works, by age 39 you'll have gained, and so on. So things probably won't get better...you won't get younger, your skin won't get more elastic. This is primo time for you; the tide is in right now, jump on the boat! And as to easy...just wait. It is a tool, the band. Not a panacea. You must make healthy choices and modify not just your eating habits but the mechanics of eating, or you'll end up with a pricey plastic insert. The band can be a miracle, just like a hammer is wonderful for hammering nails. But if you don't use it, the nail just lies there. Same with the band. You'll work. And as to the skin...maybe you'll have some, maybe you won't. (probably you won't, or not enough to matter)But it beats open heart surgery which may face you down the liine, or knee surgery, or diabetes II...or many of the other comorbidities of being heavy.

What did he say causes it? I'm glad I don't have that; I slept on my stomach from night 2 with no problems.

You have to overeat consistently and that's kind of hard (not impossible though) to do, with the band. If it does stretch I believe the treatment is generally to do an unfill and leave it that way for a while (month or so) to see if the pouch goes back to normal. Your doc can tell you more.

Ask your surgeon. My nutritionist said it was forbidden and when I pinned her down (and I had to ask more than once) she finally said defensively: "Well its an appetite stimulant for some". Oddly...it is also considered an appetite SUPPRESSANT for some (it used to be in many OTC diet pills LOL) For me..it does neither. So the reasoning didn't apply. And actually they are finding unless you are sensitive to it and it pumps up your blood pressure, for example, some caffeine is actually GOOD for you. Further for some reason people who drink 6 cups or more of coffee each day are less likely to develop diabetes II, or so I've read. SO....find out IF your doc says no, and if so, WHY....

That does sound more like a psychologist or therapist. I didn't know social workers could do that, in an official capacity. Hmm I'll have to do some research on that. Thanks for posting!

We should all, at least initially, try to follow our doc's advice. But that 3 minute thing would never fly for me; for one, that really would be just 10 bites in the 30 minutes I'm allotted to eat...and if I take small bites, that's not enough food. Moreover though, for ME (and I'm only speaking for me) one big benefit of my losing weight that I look forward to with great glee and happiness is....being more NORMAL. I'm the big girl. People are always nice to me (I"m lucky) but I am "different". Not because I look like Megan Fox, but because I'm too darn fat. The last thing I want is to trade my one "affliction" for another. To make friends or family sit patiently while I eat a bite every 3 minutes..the thought makes my toes curl, and not in a good way. I can't tell you how happy I am to get to go out to dinner, order a meal, eat my "girly" sized portion of it, and be DONE! I feel like a healthy supermodel (well, one who doesn't smoke LOL) If I had to keep an eye on my watch, or count, or plop an old egg timer on the table and do my "3" minutes...well, I just wouldn't is all. That's one of the reasons things like WW didn't work for me; I got tired to DEATH of counting and weighing and measuring. I wouldn't trade that misery for being forced to take 3 min a bite. Ok so don't do it when I eat out. Well, if i don't have to do it then, i don't have to do it. I don't mind not drinking with meals; I can drink up to time and then it's NBD. But 3 min a bite? good lord just shoot me now! SO I guess it's important we do what our docs say, but also important that we find one whose lap band "philosophy" is more in line with our own. I'd be a huge failure if I had to do that. I'll give up beer, I'll give up drinking with meals, I'll give up snacking, but I am NOT timing each bite of food. That's my sticking point.

i can understand meeting with a psychologist or a therapist, but social worker? Perhaps I have an incorrect idea of what they do....but I honestly can't think of how talking to a social worker would help me with weight loss. Would you mind posting what kind of things they offer?

Sorry I'm still speechless thinking of plain in a madonna cone bra.

Just because YOU didn't have one doesn't mean someone else can cheat and get away with it. I'm sure you don't mean to do people harm but I read posts like this and did NOT get my band because I cheated. It's on me because I did what I read here instead of what my doc told me...but we aren't all the same. Do what YOUR doc tells you, not what someone else's doc tells him/her to do.

I've had my band 3 hours and I just got home from the hospital and I hate it and i want it out. can I just go back and get it removed? will insurance pay?

Don't feel bad Slim We all know it's just the phenergan talking.

I think that quirky little latex aversion is what ruined your blossoming career in the adult film industry, isn't it?

We can go weeks without food but only days without adequate water/liquid, just FYI. (in case it happens again) so if you can't drink, you need an unfill PRONTO. OTherwise, you can be a little more conservative, and have a wait and see attitude...as long as you don't try to live that way ingesting only liquid.

That's how restriction is...you don't have it then whammo! I hope you'll be fine and don't need an unfill; glad you asked your doc, and glad I didn't give you bad advice! (that's always nice to find out! LOL)

Once you get past the visual, the aroma isn't so bad. AND...yes I'll take spurs and the crop. What a good friend you are. And don't pretend you have to "rummage" around for it It's all there in your "special" room.

Anyone got a saddle?

How handy for me that I'm full of it, huh?

Yes, personally I do prefer an aged leather to either spandex OR latex.

Slim can't hold her liquor.....slim can't hold her liquor.... na na na na poo poo