dietpeach

My nutritionist said that once i get my band I might not be able to eat steak, doughy bread, dry chicken breast, and fibrous vegetables anymore. But I've also heard that with the newer bands, you CAN eat these foods. What band do you have, and are there foods you can no longer eat? I'm especially concerned about pizza. Thanks!

I would ask the opposite question - why would I want to tell the world? I've told only my immediate family, and I plan to tell nobody else. My family is extremely supportive, yet even they sometimes say things that bother me. In fact, my mother talked me out of doing this surgery three years ago, and only now she admits it was a mistake and she should have supported me. It does bother me every time someone in my family says something like, wow you'll still be able to eat that after surgery?? Or on the contrary - you mean there are foods you'll have to give up forever?? This statement usually comes with a shocked, pitying stare - I don't want pity. There's certainly no harm meant, and nothing mean was said, but I don't like being under a microscope, and I don't like people analyzing what I eat anymore than they would like me analyzing what they eat. If even a loving supportive family can be negative or insensitive, can you imagine what casual acquaintances might say? Or people who I can't stand altogether - and once one person knows, everyone knows. They'll be looking to see if you fail - and according to the info session I attended, 20% of people do fail with the band. As much as I want to succeed, I have no way of knowing that I will. There are certain people who I'd be embarrassed to see me do something they consider "drastic" and then fail. And if you do succeed, those same people will say, "Well, she didn't do it on her own anyway - she took the easy way out." I would not want to constantly get questioned about what I can or cannot eat. And I would certainly not want to hear from skinny people, "You have a port? Eww!" Not everyone is nice. I'm sure you've found that out. And even people who are on your side can be insensitive. That's forgiveable and only human, so I did tell me family even though I expect they'll occasionally get on my nerves inadvertantly. But as for the rest of the world, it's not their business. I'm more of a private person. Maybe you're more of an open book personality. Either way, I certainly hope it works out well for you. Good luck!

Wow, I totally relate! My son was getting taunted in school that his mother is fat. I felt like garbage after that! Wasn't it enough that I was teased in first grade for being fat - now I'm still being teased by first graders - and my son has to suffer from it??? I wish people would just accept the fact that some people are genetically fat, and stop teasing us as if we chose this. I don't know why - maybe our hunger signal doesn't know how to shut off. Like you, I was the only fat kid in my family - we were fed the same foods at every meal, so why was I the fat one? No, I don't believe I was lazy at four years old when I started gaining weight. I think it was just my body. A recent study at Harvard which I read in the New York Times proved that obesity is more genetically predetermined than diabetes and heart disease combined. I'd be happy to share the article with you. The lap band works around this by squeezing the upper portion of the stomach, which sends a signal to the brain that you're full. Normally you'd have to eat enough to fill your stomach and stretch that part for the signal to be sent - with teh band, you only have to eat a little and the message is sent, so you get less hungry. Best wishes to you to get your health and happiness back, and to be the kind of mother you and your son dream about. Me too! I want to be that kind of active mother as well. So best of luck to both of us!

Dr. Fielding will be doing my band as well. Yay!!! Hopefully the end of November or early December. I started this process in July - he's so worth the wait! Do you know which band you have? I'm curious because I think we're starting out at about the same size. By the way, you might want to hold off on buying shoes for goal. Did you know that your feet shrink when you lose weight? It's true! Many women go down a size or two in number, and of course in width as well. (But if it motivates you anyway, just buy them - once you get to goal you won't care anymore if they fit!) Isn't it shocking to think we might actually get to our goal weights? I had truly given up on ever getting into the 100's again. Isn't that so sad? Good luck and happy losing! I hope my band will be as successful as yours!

Exactly! I especially want to minimize the shock on my mind. Adjusting to eating with the band will be hard enough without feeling the misery of giving up so many favorites at the same time (coca-cola). I also don't want to go from eating freely to eating a liquid diet. This plan gives me a transition. Good luck to you too, and maybe I'll see you on the December board!

After three months of waiting I finally have my consultation coming up next week. With my surgeon, there's usually a 4-5 week wait from consultation to surgery, so I have a good 5 weeks to go. I'm so psyched that I'm almost there! Anyway, I had gained weight recently, so I decided - I have to do a pre-op diet anyway, why not start a little early and get a head start losing weight? I had tried that a month ago and that's how I ended up gaining, but I decided to go on a fairly strict plan now, and since I'm sooo close to surgery, I'm finding it easy to motivate myself to stay on plan. Basically I'm doing 4 meal replacements and 2 low carb meals - totalling about 1200 calories a day.) I've completed two days on the plan and I'm doing really well sticking to plan. Reasons why I'm starting now instead of waiting for the pre-op diet: (1) I'm terrified that the usual pre-op diet won't be enough to shrink my liver and I'll end up having the surgery cancelled or worse - converted to open. (I do NOT want to be cut open from breast bone to pubic bone!!! I won't even consent to that!) (2) I am so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I want to get started on this new phase of my life already! Why should I wait to start losing weight if I find I actually have the motivation at the moment to stick to a diet? (3) I'm afraid of having complications in the surgery, and the less I weigh at the time of surgery, the less likely I am to have complications. (4) I really want the Allergan APS band, not the APL. I'm sure they're both fine, but the research showed the APS patients lost 62% of their excess weight in the first year, while the APL lost 43%. They explained the difference away as follows: "The APL band is not yet achieving as good weight loss when measured as %EWL. Partly, this is due to the larger patients being allocated to the APL group (mean BMI of 49.5 for APL; mean BMI of 41.6 for APS), and partly due to inadequate adjustments as we search for the optimal adjustment protocol." So they might be right that the APL is just as good, but nevertheless I want the band that has been proven to work better. The lower BMI patients tended to get the APS bands and the higher BMI patients got the APL bands, so hopefully I can lose enough in 5 weeks to get my BMI down. (And if it's not enough, I'll just work whatever band I get! But I want to at least try for the APS.) (5) I think adjusting to life with the band would be easier if I'd been sticking to an eating plan for 5 weeks beforehand. My appetite should be less, my stomach should be smaller - and, I won't have to give up my favorite foods "all of a sudden." (Which would be a disaster for me - I would go into serious withdrawal LOL.) (6) I'm hoping between now and my consultation to lose back down to the weight I was when I went for my nutritionist visit. It's a pride thing I guess. (7) Going on the all liquid pre-op diet should be easier if I'm already dieting, with half my diet consisting of shakes as it is. I'm not weighing myself either, because I don't want to psyche myself out. Weighing myself psyches me out - if I don't lose weight I give up, and if I do lose weight I always feel it's a drop in the bucket and give up. By not looking at the numbers, I'm hoping to not give up. And once I have the surgery, I hope this won't be a problem anymore, because if I stick to the rules of the band, I'll (hopefully) just keep losing. Wish me luck!

My experience is that I decided to diet to get a head start on the band, and I ended up gaining weight! I should have left well enough alone - I had been maintaining for years until I changed my eating habits. So my advice is to only diet if you have a serious plan you can follow and you know you will stick to it and not gain weight.

Annie, I'm in the exact same boat as you, and I am going nuts waiting. I also started this process in July, and my consultation with the surgeon is October 29th, so we're really in this together. After the consultation, the wait until surgery with my surgeon is generally 4-5 weeks, so I'm looking at first getting my surgery late November or early December. I'm going a little :willy_nilly:trying to be patient. Do you know how long the wait for surgery is after your consultation?

I've been waiting since July for this surgery. I finally have a consultation appointment at the end of this month, but can you believe I gained at least 10 pounds in the last three weeks?? I'll be so embarrassed to go into the consultation and have the doctor see how much I gained since seeing the nutritionist...

Thanks BeautyLocs, you're right. I'm sure a year from now or five years from now it won't matter that I gained these 10 pounds. I hope to God I'll have lost way more than that by then. But for now it's so hard. besides the embarrassment, I am angry at myself because I now weigh more than I ever did in my life thanks to these 10 pounds. And I feel bad physically - my weight is really affecting my energy levels and how I feel, how much I can get around, etc. I'm young, but I feel old sometimes. I'm really praying that this surgery will be the tool I need to get my health back. It's so demoralizing to have tried and failed so many times, and realize I just can't do this on my own without surgery. I wish I could, but I'm finally honest enough to admit - I just can't.

Did anyone have a really hard time adjusting to life with the band? Was the sudden change in what you're able to eat shocking, especially if you're used to eating bread, soda, etc.? And did it get better over time? How long did it take until your new way of eating started to feel "normal"? Does the lack of hunger help? (Is there a lack of hunger?) So many questions, I know!

Yes, my fatty liver and enlarged spleen were diagnosed by ultrasound.

Hi, I also have a fatty liver. My doctor never said anything about how bad it is, but my spleen is also enlarged, so that's not a good sign - I've read it's a sign that the fatty liver has worsened, but who knows. I shouldn;t self-diagnose. I'm very glad to see you're sticking to your diet, because your doctor's words are very scary. If you've ruled out gastric bypass, then I think lap-band is a good choice. Maybe ask your doctor? If you want to lose weight with the lap band as fast as the gastric bypass in the first year, I've heard the new Allergan Lap Band AP (Advanced Platform) seems to do the trick. Good luck and stay healthy!

After my c-sections, I remember that lying down was fine, and standing up was somewhat painful but ok, but GETTING UP from lying down into a standing position was the killer. Is it like this after getting banded? Or were you able to get yourself up and out of bed? Thanks.

Dr. Ren, Fielding, or Kurian?

I also see the nurse. What should I expect from this appointment? I'm so excited!

Come to think of it, Medifast has some nutritionally complete products that are NOT milkshakes, such as peach or raspberry iced tea, Cranberry-Mango fruit drink, tropical fruit drink, chai latte tea, Cappuccino, and hot cocoa. They are lower in carb, high in Protein, low in fat, and have all the Vitamins and minerals you need. Medifast | Shop Medifast (No, I don't work for them LOL!)

I'm hopefully getting banded at NYU, where it can take four months from seminar till banding. So I might not get banded until late October/early November. I'm losing my mind a little trying to be patient and wait it out. :biggrin: It took me three years from when I thought of doing this to finally deciding. So why are four months such a big deal then? I guess that I finally have a vision of starting a new chapter of my life, and I'm anxious to get started already.

I tried to do this today, practicing the new eating habits (small bites, chewing a lot). It's gonna be a rough transition for me, I can tell you! I'm not used to eating that way. Oh boy, I think I'm in for quite a transition. But at the same time, I WANT new eating habits. I want to eat slowly, it's a much healthier way. So the good news is that the surgery will force me into it.

I'm so excited t find an NYU board! I'm still pre-op, and I can't wait to get things going. I've attended the seminar, I've had the psych eval, and I'll be seeing the nurse/nutritionist the first week of September. How long does it take from seeing the nurse/nutritionist to consulting with Dr. Fielding? And until the surgery? I just want a rough idea of when I mighht get banded already. Can ya tell I'm losing patience?

Hello to everyone in the August 2007 board! Since this is your anniversary month, I was wondering if you have any advice to offer a pre-op like myself? What worked for you , what didn't, what you would do differently, what you wish you would have known, etc. Thanks, and happy anniversary!

What was your diet like before the band, and what's it like now? Be as specific as possible, like what you typically eat at each meal, what you snack on, what you drink, etc. I once lost 50 pounds on a very low carb diet, which emphasized a lot of Protein (meat, eggs, fish, chicken) with minimal carbohydrates (some vegetables). Despite losing 50 pounds, my blood pressure went up a ton (115/75 went up to 150/100), I became hypoglycemic, my good cholesterol went down, and my triglycerides went up. I went off the diet, gained back all the weight and more, and my blood pressure is now normal. I think it was too much protein and too few carbs. I'm not saying this is your problem, but perhaps if you list everything you're eating now versus then, maybe we can pinpoint a problem somewhere. Otherwise, I guess it could be a genetic thing.

Okay, so does anyone know what this means? My diagnosis code on my psych paper is 316, which is "Psychological Factors Affecting Medical Condition." What does that mean?? :confused2:

Okay, I found out what it means. I spoke to my mother who used to work in a doctor's office. This diagnosis code is not a diagnosis - it just explains the reason for the visit. Without a diagnosis code, there will be no reimbursement by insurance. So, it means he was LOOKING FOR psychological factors affecting my weight, it doesn't mean he found any. I'd be surprised if he had, because he seemed very pleased with me and my level of understanding of the surgery, and my realistic expectations.

Thanks for the reply. Dr. Kurian has a loyal following among her patients. I'm sure she'll do a great job. Good luck on your pre-op diet!