sparkplug

I have to say, I agree with everything you say! I too was insane my whole life, dieting, losing and regaining. I did have about 15 years of starving myself to death to keep at a size 12 but then it piled on 90 pds over the last 8 years and nothing worked. I decided on lap band surgery at the ripe age of 56 because I had enough of yo yo dieting. I feel like a million bucks and would never regret the decision regardless what happens down the road. I am 90 pds lighter, no more meds and a size 8-10 which I can't ever remember being this small and eat to live not live to eat. This website keeps me focused and it is people like all of you that keep me positively reinforced to live my life MY WAY and not what other people feel we should do. Congratulations to everyone on here who come here to keep the faith and think positive!

Do they not have fill centers near you that you can get a slight unfill? They have them all around me between Arizona and Las Vegas, I thought they were all around the country? Don't let this go too long, I would not want to see anything happen to you or your band. We are told here in Arizona to keep out of Mexico because of the murders going on a daily basis. Please don't risk your life for the band, if you can, get it done locally and as soon as possible. Thinking good thoughts for you.

I am so sorry that your husband is not as supportive as mine has been and still is. My husband has been absolutely fantastic in encouraging me especially when I hit plateaus along the way, which I hit many. You are doing fantastic and do not let his remarks stop you from moving forward with this. You don't think he is starting to get jealous of you losing weight already, do you? He might be getting nervous he is going to lose a wonderful beautiful woman like you when you get all your weight off. My husband is so proud of me after 2 years and losing 90 pds with no fills that he tells everybody how wonderful I am and look. Do not let your husband get you down or make you think you are not doing well. I was a slow loser from day one, you will make it I am sure. Good luck and keep happy.

I feel for all of you with the depression especially around the holidays. I do have some depression but nothing that I cannot handle. My mom had severe depression that lasted for years and was never diagnosed or treated and she brought us all down around the holidays. She was so depressed that she literally made me sick every holiday time to the point where my colitis would take over my life and I just wanted to die because I could not handle it anymore. Fast forward to 31 years of being with my husband who is a rock and as stable of a person that I know and he has saved me from the world of depression. We are alone with moving away from his hateful family 3000 miles away and I thank God everyday they are far away from us and our happy little life. I decided 6 years ago that I had to make life the best I could for me and my husband and two schnauzers and we packed up and moved to Arizona. I have never regretted moving here to the land of sunshine and I too pray everyday to keep his hateful and miserable family far away from us. I was brought up that you only come around this life one time and you need make the best choices you can and enjoy. I wish I could tell all of you a magic potion to get rid of your depression, but I don't know of any. I know it was a living hell with my mom in the severe depression and I thought they had ways of dealing with it to help all of you. I will pray for all of you too to help give you some peace and happiness while on this good earth. Love all of you and just remember that life is too short to let this control you. Like this weight thing, we need to take charge and handle it, that is why we women are the stronger of the sex mentally!

I am sure you have swelling after being stuck. I keep papaya enzyme tablets with me at all times. Chewing a few when getting stuck, helps to move the offenders down. I walk walk walk and try to get sips of Water down when I get comfortable enough and sure enough within 20 minutes it moves through. I do not have any fill so that might be to my advantage, but you need to perhaps have some liquids for a day or so to get the swelling down. Maybe Protein smoothies would help with the crushed ice, it works wonders for me to soothe the upset that a stuck episode causes me. Good luck and I guess we occasionally mess up with eating too much or too fast. I still have to slow down and not eat like the house is on fire.

How true you are!!! I am 57 yrs old and have been battling this weight my whole life. I have been banded since 12/20/08 and am down 90 pds but every day is a new day to fight this addiction. Everything you said in your post is so so true and I agree 100% with it. We cannot give up food like an alcoholic or drug addict and go on to live life, we have to learn some kind of controls and every day is a new trial and error episode to our life long battle of the bulge. Truer words were never spoken like you hit the subject on the head with this post. We are all in this together and that is why even after 2 years of being banded, I come on this website every single day, every morning with my cup of coffee, I read how we are all in this together. I hope that everybody that reads your post realizes that we are all in this together and there is no magical cure (the band), everything is a work in progress. I will continue this battle since I love being a size 8-10 again after all of these years of being overweight. I love people saying how tiny I am and how young looking I look after shedding all that weight. Good luck and I hope that someone else beside myself can see the reality of what you have just posted. Bless all of you for your long journey to a better life with the band.

This is soooooo funny! I thought I was the only one that lied about my weight on my DL! Was I ever shocked after reading this website. I absolutely love it!!! I had put 190 lb when I was actually 235 and they never said a word! ha ha I really need to change my picture though, and see the difference. I have self image issues and don't see the 90 pd difference, maybe with a new picture I can see it. Thanks for everybody sharing this, I thought I was the only one lying about my weight!!

I found this out several times over and still have not learned to not eat when stressed by work or family issues. It is a GUARANTEE that I will be stuck, regardless how small the bites or how careful I am in eating. I have no fills and it gets super tight when stressed or first thing in morning when I wake up. I am almost 2 years out since being banded, and this has been an ongoing thing with me from day one. I stop eating immediately and make my smoothie with banana and strawberries and whey Protein to substitute for my meal.

I hate this new style of formatting and when I tried to go to another lap band site, they have the same format!!! What the hay????? We old timers, like the old way better, it was more user friendly and now it is a nightmare to even get on here. I rely heavily on this site every day to start my day out in a positive note and this has been an absolute nightmare with this new format. The more complaints the better, I hope they can refine this to be more user friendly. Thanks

I am almost 2 years banded and still occasionally get stuck. Just this last week, twice on turkey!! I refuse to throw it back up, just walked and walked, with chewing papaya enzyme tablets and finally it moved down. I tend to miss meals on weekend and I get so hungry, either I take too big of a bite or don't chew enough. Wouldn't you think I would learn by now. I would hate to see if I had any fill, never had a fill and probably a good thing for that. Hopefully we will learn down the road....

be patient crybaby, I hit so many plateaus when I started 2 years ago that I thought I would never make the end of this long journey. There is light at the end of the tunnel, if I can do this, anybody can do this. Don't give up, it is a long road and you need your strength along the way. Good luck and be happy with each and every loss.

I had my surgery on 12/20/08 at North Vista Hospital in Las Vegas and cannot say enough good about everyone there. It was one of the most pleasant experiences from the minute I got in there until they released me at noon to go home with my husband. The nurses and staff were friendly, warm and caring with every aspect from the minute I walked in until I was released. I could not have asked for a better experience if I had requested it myself. Dr. Atkinson was great and since I am at goal with 90 pds lost and no fills, I would say it did an excellent job. Thank you everyone that made this happen for me!!!

I have done this from day one. I bought a little dish and have smaller utensils just for me and it helps tremendously. Something about using a big plate and not having it look full, plays games on your mind that you do not have enough food. It has helped me greatly to have my food on a small dish and I still leave some food sometimes when my band is tight from a stressful day at work.

Denise, I too was brought up real poor. There were times that dinner was a couple of bologna sandwiches or a pizza or a dozen of doughnuts to be split with my sister and brothers. Hence, the band is a life saver and I have had to relearn how to eat my whole life after growing up on my own. We were taught what would hold your stomach full for long periods of times between meals, because we were never sure where the next meal would come from.

very informative, thank you

I would also like to know if you cannot cut them with a pill cutter, what to do? I just gave away Calcium supplements that had horse sized pills and would have had to cut into 3 pieces to get them down. I use chewable Vitamins and calcium pills.

Did anybody else lose their ticker with this new and improved website? It lost mine and I am not sure if I can get it back on? Any questions or help would be appreciated, until I can find another website to chat on.

My computer is like that too, you can't even talk to people because on the chat site, you cannot see who you are talking to, the names are almost totally covered up. I hope the administrators like this new program, they can keep it, I will find another website to check every morning to reenforce my lap band rules, this is very distracting and totally unnecessary to have everything covered up with advertisements. Again, I absolutely HATE this website like this, I want it back to user friendly like it was.

I ABSOLUTELY HATE this new website, you can't see who is on the chat because these huge ads on the right are covering everybodys names up????? What is the deal, need them to pay for this site, or just totally obsessed with advertising? I will have to navigate and find a new site, this drives me crazy, I dont have the patience to try to get these ads off of the screen, if it is even possible.

I have been banded almost 2 years and I still struggle with head hunger. I went from 235 pd to 144pd and have been maintaining for the last year. I do not ever say I cannot have a piece of pie, that is trouble brewing in my mind to be told that I can never have what I love again. I have had no fills and have perfect restriction ( odd bird, I know). I am off all meds and feel like a teenager again. Love these websites to see how everyone else is doing. It is worth every dollar I paid out of pocket to be in my size 8-10's. Good luck everybody!

It is great to see that even movie stars need help like us. Whether they have band or GB, I believe they feel like us that they needed help with this huge weight problem we all have. I do, however, see that the ones that GB have gained some if not all weight back and it makes me feel better that we have the band and can have it adjusted to keep better control. Just my thoughts on the subject. I love my band!!

Nic, I am with you on the misleading info on packages. When was the last time you bought the dollar bag of popcorn, it says 2 servings, so I think you are just suppose to taste things and not get filled up. They know how to legally mislead you when buying food, so be aware of how many servings on the calorie label on the back of bags, cans and boxes. I do not think that is funny either.

Erin, how can you go wrong with all this support. We all go through many stages of slacking off for a while, but you need to remember to get back to the grind stone and get moving. I wish I had this opportunity when I was 19, I was 55 when got my band, and if I can do it, so can you. Keep positive thoughts and you can do it!

I don't know if it is a compulsion, I like to refer to it as "head Hunger" even though I am not hungry, I get an idea in my head I want something and it is so hard to get that thought out! I was banded 12/20/08 and am to goal with 90 pds lost. I do splurge now and again so as to not be obsessed about having something and go up and down 2 pds but I can live with that and am so much happier in life since losing this weight. I don't know if the head hunger ever goes away, but like they have said here, we do have some control with having the band, thank you whoever invented the band to begin with!!!

The 100 reasons was fantastic. What so many people don't realize when they have never been fat or yo yo dieting their whole life like us is that unlike alcoholism, you can quit drinking and live. Food is a necessity and we just have to learn to limit the amount, we cannot stay totally away from food and survive. This website is the greatest part of this journey for me. Thanks to everybody here.