NeonRaven8919

Hi Meg!
I had a lapband for 14 years and successfully kept off 100 pounds. I was never hungry with it. Sadly, it died in 2023 and had to be removed.
The first weeks without it were glorious-- I was able to eat things I missed--- salads, brocolli, Bagels. I told myself I would stil eat smaller meals but it was impossible without my tool. I started eating bagels weekly, would have a second slice of pizza, etc. I tired to keep my calories to 1500 but even then I was still eating more. than the 800 cal a day with the band. The weight packed on quickly. I gained 30 pounds in 4 months. And all 100 pounds within 10 months. I totallty failed. With the added. weight, came all of the medical problems again. My blood pressure went up, I had the rashes and skin rub, my plantar facuitis made it impossible to walk far.I hated myself again.
I was finaly approved for a revision and converted to RNYGB a week ago. I am taking my life back and only wish I had pushed for a revision at the get go.

Hi guys just checking in . Its been a while. I had my surgery june 4. I was 217 & i am now 153. Super happy with my results. Im considering getting a reduction because i have severe backaches. Lastly, keep me in prayer. I recently lost my grandma (dec 9) its been hard.

I think the best reply to that is just that your doctor is pleased with your weight and your fitness. And if they keep pressing that you’re going to defer to the one with the medical degree. I honesty believe that some people are just a tad jealous.

First post in a very long time-I’m enjoying the Christmas season except for one thing. If I hear one more time I need “more meat on my bones” or that I need to put some weight on I’m going to lose it. Ironically, some of the comments come from overweight family members. I would never think to tell them they need to lose weight. 7 years out and I’m happy where I’m at!!

Hope all goes well with your health concern.

I posted this in my surgery date group:
I feel like Christmas has been harder than Halloween and Thanksgiving as far as making healthy choices. I think Halloween, I still wasn't eating completely normal so it helped me avoid candy. Thanksgiving, I don't really like pie so that helped. But Christmas, there have been all types of goodies around (including the baked goods I made for my neighbors) that its easy to take a piece of a cookie or a little chocolate and not think much of it. I for sure eating less than I would have in the past and only taking a 1/3 or 1/2 of a cookie still feels like a win, but I hope I can kick this habit after Christmas, because I don't want to get too comfortable again with grabbing sweets when I'm craving one.

OP you're absolutely doing the right thing getting that lump checked out. Everything crossed for it being nothing at all to worry about.
How amazing that you're approaching your first goal - that time has flown! And crossing into a lower stone is such a boost, every time.
It's weird how your tastes change. Often I actually want more savoury treats like crisps (potato chips for the USians!) I will have a little pudding/dessert on xmas day though - just a taste or two. After that it'll be back to the cheese board, LOL.

2 and a half months post op. I survived Thanksgiving, but there wasn't a lot of Snacks like there is with Christmas. I did however have a small mince pie and was able to stop at just one so I'm definitely getting better at self-control. Since I'm going to see friends Christmas Eve and Christmas day (only one last day at work until then) I'm bringing a dish that I can eat and I've asked if I can bring a container so I can take home any of my left over portion of turkey etc. I just had a stall that finally broke so I'm feeling confident again.

2 and a half months post op. I survived Thanksgiving, but there wasn't a lot of Snacks like there is with Christmas. I did however have a small mince pie and was able to stop at just one so I'm definitely getting better at self-control. Since I'm going to see friends Christmas Eve and Christmas day (only one last day at work until then) I'm bringing a dish that I can eat and I've asked if I can bring a container so I can take home any of my left over portion of turkey etc. I just had a stall that finally broke so I'm feeling confident again.

2 and a half months post op. I survived Thanksgiving, but there wasn't a lot of Snacks like there is with Christmas. I did however have a small mince pie and was able to stop at just one so I'm definitely getting better at self-control. Since I'm going to see friends Christmas Eve and Christmas day (only one last day at work until then) I'm bringing a dish that I can eat and I've asked if I can bring a container so I can take home any of my left over portion of turkey etc. I just had a stall that finally broke so I'm feeling confident again.

2 and a half months post op. I survived Thanksgiving, but there wasn't a lot of Snacks like there is with Christmas. I did however have a small mince pie and was able to stop at just one so I'm definitely getting better at self-control. Since I'm going to see friends Christmas Eve and Christmas day (only one last day at work until then) I'm bringing a dish that I can eat and I've asked if I can bring a container so I can take home any of my left over portion of turkey etc. I just had a stall that finally broke so I'm feeling confident again.

2 and a half months post op. I survived Thanksgiving, but there wasn't a lot of Snacks like there is with Christmas. I did however have a small mince pie and was able to stop at just one so I'm definitely getting better at self-control. Since I'm going to see friends Christmas Eve and Christmas day (only one last day at work until then) I'm bringing a dish that I can eat and I've asked if I can bring a container so I can take home any of my left over portion of turkey etc. I just had a stall that finally broke so I'm feeling confident again.

Well not to scare you but I felt something in my breast about 2.5 months post op and when I got the call I was 3 months post and it was breast cancer. I think I honestly may not have found it if it hadn’t been for the weight loss though so at least now I have a fighting chance. 🤷‍♀️. I truly do hope yours is absolutely nothing but i just wanted to mention that it’s always best to get anything like that checked (as you are). I had my mammograms annually and even had my breasts checked at my Pap smear only ten days prior to feeling it myself and the Dr had missed it so I really had to go with my gut to get it checked out anyways. It was hard to believe that she wouldn’t have felt it and I figured that they were going to just laugh at me because it was supposed to be there but it wasn’t. I would probably be stage 4 instead of 3 if I had waited until my next mammogram instead of trusting my gut.

Definitely don’t worry about it until you have a real reason to, but also for anyone else reading this don’t ignore it because it does happen. Just get it checked out and enjoy your life. All we can do. Maybe when you go ask the radiologist to do a self exam with you and tell you what things you feel are so you know what’s normal and what’s not. I would only trust the radiologist that has the imaging in front of them though because my gyno when I went to tell her I felt something said that she was 99% certain it was just fibrous tissue but would send me for mammogram anyways. I actually almost cancelled the appointment because she made me feel like it was a waste of time and money. Thankfully I didn’t.

I finally got into the Christmas spirit when we took my five younger cousins out for a night of Christmas Lights and Hot Cocoa. That’s usually the end to our big annual Christmas crafts day with the kids but with chemo I can’t do a whole day and night of five kids right now energy wise so we just did the lights part. I usually don’t get into the spirit until I’m around the kids. My Christmas treat is the Ghirardelli peppermint chocolates. They are individually wrapped so you can easily have just one and they have it in dark chocolate. It’s definitely off plan and a splurge but you can freeze them to make it less tempting to not waste.

I wonder if your "weight gain" is actually just edema? Fluid retention, especially around the feet and ankles is a common side effect of many PPI meds. have you noticed anything like that?

OMG yes this!!!! Honestly, 3 years out I still have to have a big think, several times a day, about whether I need to eat or just want to eat. I think this is how it will be forever. Seems a small price to pay for being half my previous size but it is a thing.

I've kind of had a breakthrough this morning. I took the meds on an empty stomach because I'm supposed to take them at least a half hour before food. About 10 minutes later, I felt like I was starving, but because I was on my bike and cycling to work, I knew I would have to wait to until I got to work in 20 minutes to eat anything. But the "starving feeling" just stopped after about 5 minutes. I think I've spent so much of life thinking "any sensation in my stomach means I need to eat". And then I had a yogurt about half an hour later and I feel completely full. So I think if I get any sensations in my stomach, I need to wait and actually see what it means and wait about 20 minutes.

I've kind of had a breakthrough this morning. I took the meds on an empty stomach because I'm supposed to take them at least a half hour before food. About 10 minutes later, I felt like I was starving, but because I was on my bike and cycling to work, I knew I would have to wait to until I got to work in 20 minutes to eat anything. But the "starving feeling" just stopped after about 5 minutes. I think I've spent so much of life thinking "any sensation in my stomach means I need to eat". And then I had a yogurt about half an hour later and I feel completely full. So I think if I get any sensations in my stomach, I need to wait and actually see what it means and wait about 20 minutes.

It's definitely the holiday foods too, but I managed to survive Thanksgiving without feeling as hungry. So it could be hunger returning, holiday food and stomach acid going haywire. My stomach is constantly doing something. I just feel like a burp waiting to happen lately. Even with an empty stomach.

I've kind of had a breakthrough this morning. I took the meds on an empty stomach because I'm supposed to take them at least a half hour before food. About 10 minutes later, I felt like I was starving, but because I was on my bike and cycling to work, I knew I would have to wait to until I got to work in 20 minutes to eat anything. But the "starving feeling" just stopped after about 5 minutes. I think I've spent so much of life thinking "any sensation in my stomach means I need to eat". And then I had a yogurt about half an hour later and I feel completely full. So I think if I get any sensations in my stomach, I need to wait and actually see what it means and wait about 20 minutes.

@ShoppGirl They were nice to me but definitely wasn't coming up to ask me "What I thought of the weather" or trying to find something to talk about just to talk to me (I feel so conceited saying *ew*) but you know what I mean! I can say I have always been confident. like a fake it till ya make type, so I think like you said we are exuding the confidence piece and they are attracted to that? I totally bet your neighbors think someone else moved in. 75lbs in a whole freaking kid in weight that you lost! btw you are soooo close to your goal weight!!!

I am not sure if this a win or not, but went to hubbys Christmas party and no one recognized me, his coworkers asked who I was and what happened between us. He had to tell all of them that I was the same person but a little smaller LOL When I walked in I was overwhelmed with how everyone was staring/googling at me when I walked in on my hubs arm, so I ended up having to go up to the bathroom and shake it off. Definitely a different experience as well, having all of them coming up and talking to me about random stuff, when previous times no one would approach me unless I was with my hubby.

I finally broke the 2 month plateau a few days ago and the weight had been dropping tremendously.

Today my BMI is 29.9 and I am no longer in the obese category!!!!!!!!

I set a my goal for what the BMI chart considers "normal", but really, I just want to get down to a UK 12 dress size. That was a size I just skipped over. I went straight from teenage sizes to size 16. I've been overweight all my life.

When I feel like I'm stalling, I tend to panic and think I've failed and I'm trying to stop that so I take my measurements and remind myself how far I've come even if the numbers don't match what I wish they did.

This is a good analogy about cheap gas. We had my work Christmas Celebration which included a sit down, three course meal. I had to leave one course untouched because it was not worth the space in my stomach. While I'm sure it would have been delicious, it's just not good for me. The waiter looked a bit upset that I just didn't touch it, but I'm learning to choose the things that are better for me, not just what my taste buds feel are better. Side Note: At another time though, I will remember to look for a black cherry sorbet recipe and hopefully find a sugar free version.
I still over did it a little bit as I should have stuck to just the turkey and veg and not has as much of the stuffing, but even making one good choice is better than making all bad choices.

I've kind of had a breakthrough this morning. I took the meds on an empty stomach because I'm supposed to take them at least a half hour before food. About 10 minutes later, I felt like I was starving, but because I was on my bike and cycling to work, I knew I would have to wait to until I got to work in 20 minutes to eat anything. But the "starving feeling" just stopped after about 5 minutes. I think I've spent so much of life thinking "any sensation in my stomach means I need to eat". And then I had a yogurt about half an hour later and I feel completely full. So I think if I get any sensations in my stomach, I need to wait and actually see what it means and wait about 20 minutes.