OnTheWay to Thin

Well went on a business trip last week, lots of airport walking, so I went down! YEA... seems to be moving again now, suddenly my size 18's are getting really roomy, I started in a snug 24, I am at 9 mos today... Had hoped for more, but I am happy with my progress.

Down 1/2 lb. I will take it. I have been up and down and leveling out, so I was very happy to see I went into the next lb territory.

I am doing the up down thing too, up 1 down 2 up 2 down 1, but no real gains or losses. Guess I have to get on the bike this weekend and see if I can bust through this.

Hi I will jump in here. I have a couple ideas from your last post. I have had my band for almost 8 mos and it is a big adjustment learning what you can and cannot eat. I cannot eat bread unless well toasted and just a small amount, I also cannot eat french fries, heavy Pasta, or flour tortillas or scrambled eggs. It is different for everyone, but there are some things that are commonly problematic. You said something very significant when you said "she says milkshakes go down easier". There is something know as a slider food. Slider foods are high calorie foods that go down easy because they go right past the band. I suspect she is padding her diet with these items rather than following a lapband meal plan. Most people with the band have difficulty with eating large amounts in the am, this is because the band seems to be a bit tighter in the am. But I also noticed in your post that there are several rules your gf seems to be breaking. 1) bansters are not supposed to drink carbonated sodas, I have rarely heard of a doctor who approves of this. 2) you are not supposed to drink with your meals, this actually washes the food down quicker and therefore you dont feel full when you should. Most doctors advise to not drink during meals or for an hour after, some even restrict drinking for 30 minute before meals. 3) you need to keep the Protein intake up to at least 60 grams a day, this is accomplished by either protein shakes or eating good lean meat and fish. From what you said I doubt she is getting the protein, protein keeps you full longer and makes this easier. My suggestion is that you get her an appointment with a dietician, I was required to see one before my surgery and many offer follow up and consultations to help you with diet planning. But as an idea, here is my diet for most days. Breakfast - 1 Chocoalte protien shake, 160 calories, 25 grams of protein (I use muscle milk light), I blend the shake with ice cubes and it tastes pretty good that way. normally not hungry between breakfast and lunch but if I am I might have a low fat piece of string cheese. Lunch: Leftover what ever I had for a previous dinner, I will take about 3 ounces of left over meat with a veggie and freeze in small 1 cup containers. I zap them in the microwave and that is lunch. After lunch but before dinner I am sometimes hungry, if I am I will drink a protein bullet, 25 grams of protein and 100 calories, or other high protein low fat/calorie snack. Dinner - I can eat more at dinner than lunch so I will have 3-4 ounces of meat, fish or chicken, and salad or a cooked vegetable, occasionally a couple tablespoons of potatoe, rice or light pasta. After dinner if I want a snack or treat I will have sugar free Jello snack pack puddings or a sugar free popsicle or fudgesicle. I will ocasionally eat a very small piece of cheesecake or something like that but it is a very small piece, like less than an inch thick slice. I dont eat french fries, mac and cheese, shakes and that sort of thing. I hope that helps. I am almost up to 60 lbs lost and it has been hard work.

I too suspect that he is worried about you and this is how it is coming out. I am in your area, who is your dr? I was banded by Dr Clinch and have had good luck. My husband has handled it very well, but I have a friend whos husband is very insecure now that he feels she is getting "too hot" for him. LOL... But a lot of people worry about losing their partner if they are suddenly more attractive to more people. So try and find out where the fear is coming from and then work on reassuring him that those things are not going to change.

Stayed the same, thought I was going down 1 and then boom back up... but it is a hormonal time so fingers crossed for next week.

Icee's are actually carbonated so be careful with them too... I was a severe diet pepsi addict for over 30 years. I felt crappy for about a month when I stopped, but... after a while I stopped missing them. I did try one over the holidays and it tasted like ick... so I guess my recovery is complete.

get some anti nausea meds from your doctor, that way if you start to feel like you could be vomiting you can use those. It really helps to stop vomiting.

very normal, this is called bandster hell, you have had the surgery but your band is not doing anything for you yet.

There are a number of reasons why someone might not lose after surgery, but most seem to be follow up and compliance. You have to be diligent about going back for fills until you get the the correct level, that can be a pain in the butt and some people stop at 2-3 and decide it is not working for them. For me I think I had 7 fills before I landed in a good spot. Otherwise there are medical and psychologial issues in overeating that also need to be addressed. I think some people think the band is a magic bullet and they dont have to do anything to lose weight, that is WRONG, it takes work and commitment. The band makes it easier, no question but you still have to work at it.

I was just as frustrated as you, long story but my port had a leak and I just could not get restriction going. Finally had my port replaced in late October, and now have good restriction. What a difference. For me restriction actually prevents me from eating too much, if I do it comes right back up. I stay satisfied for about 4 hours and that is really good. I have a protien shake for Breakfast, about 3/4 cup at lunch and by dinner I can eat almost 1 cup. Any more and I know I have gone too far. So hang in there, most people seem to average 5-8cc before they are feeling restriction so you are probably just not there yet. There is no way I could eat anything close to a foot long anything after I had about 4.5 - 5 cc in my band. I am almost to 6 now and am in a really good spot.

I can eat salad if the lettuce is well cut up and and well chewed... if not it can be dicey, basically lettuce has the habit of not getting cut into small piece when you chew, so it can unfold and kind of block or something when eaten. But if you use shreaded lettuce (like they call shreads in the grocery store) it seems to work for me. meat is an individual thing, some people it really does not work, but for me I find as long as the meat is not over cooked or dried out and I chew well I can eat it just fine. Pasta -- I can eat some pasta but it has to be the lighter pasta like spaghetti and small amounts, I cant eat the heavy dense italian type pasta's, basically it just gumms up and forms a ball and gets stuc, so the ticket is plenty of sauce and chew well. I read somewhere that once you are filled, the opening between the pouch and lower stomach is smaller than your little finger.. if you think of it that way you will understand why eating slow and chewing is so important. And soft bread of any kind does not work no matter how slowly I eat or how well I chew. Also I cannot eat scrambled eggs, I did until my last fill but now no way, comes up everytime. Hope this helps, feel free to send me a private message if you have more questions.

I still go out quite a bit actually but eat differently when we do. If I go to Breakfast with my husband I will order a crispy english muffin, i will eat 1/2 of it and give the other 1/2 to him, he will have a meal that has either bacon or ham on it and I will eat a little of that. For lunch we just went to applebees this weekend, I ordered the new wonton tacos, they are 4 little tacos, I ate 2 of them, my husband ate the other 2. Very often I will order an appetizer of some sort then I can share the rest with others at the table, i.e. we went to a pub this weekend, they had an appetizer called steak bites. It was about 5 pieces of steak that was maybe 3/4" x 1/5" with either a b b que or horsey dipping sauce. I ate 2 of them and a bit of salad, the rest was my lunch today. So you can make it work, the thing I find is to make sure you pace yourself, eat slow, that way although others are eating more you are still eating while they are so no one feels akward. I tend to go for the meat first, salad or veg second, stay away from the potatoes, pastas, fries, or other starches they dont work for me and are empty calories anyway so why waste the small amount I can eat on something like that. Hope this helps.

There are others on here at that size, but please be aware whether you lose slowly or not you may still have the skin issue. Some peoples skin bounces back some does not, dont know if it is genetics or what but some are lucky.

One thing mashed potatoes and anything else that can kind of clump together is sometimes problematic for a bandster when they are tight. So if one food gives you grief, try something else and generally it will work. Also so sorry to hear of all your complications, that is really too bad, but hopefully now that you are on the upside of that your band can start working with you and you will be glad you had the surgery in the end.

Find out if you have any fluid in your band, some doctors put some in at the time of surgery some dont. If you have some you may need a slight unfil... sounds like you are tight. Also all the havoc from the blood clots, ivs and all that probably put a lot of pressure on your mid section. Call your doctor and tell them everything, better safe than sorry and with your history you cant be too careful.

Got back to a size 40 band bra. Pants I have gone from a 24 to an 18! I bought a new jacket today, it was in the misses section size XL not 1X! Went to Avenue this weekend and tried on tops, 18/20 was too big! Actually bought a couple tops in size 14/16.

Finally broke my plateau that I have been stuck at and seem to be moving down a few ounces each day. I was at 255.2 this am, so hopefully I can get some momentum again. I did also get a new and better scale so that helps too!

I made the decision to have the surgery because I have a severly arthritic knee that will need a replacement, my doctor said it would fail if I was not under 200lbs when the surgery was done, I have now lost a bit over 50lbs and I can tell you my knee has improved 100%, so I feel with more weight loss that I may be able to prolong the surgery for a while longer than I anticipated. It is hard work, but oh so worth it.

It sounds like they took out too much, you may need to go back to fills until you level out. Go for small fills, and adjust as necessary until you get the right level of restriction again.

No way for me, I could never eat that much at one sitting, and potatoes dont work for me nor does bread. If I eat hamburger, it is 1/2 of a patty with cheese and catsup but no bun, no fries...

I agree with UpperWestSide. I still go out to eat, just have to be careful, I still sip my ice tea until dinner arrives, then push it aside. No one really notices. You find ways to adapt and not call attention to yourself and you are not a freak. One of our friends made a comment once that if he did not pay close attention to how much I ate he rarely remembers I have had surgery. I eat slower, talk more, and generally enjoy meals out.

Here is mine for the week, my doctor took me off of my high blood pressure medicine.

It happens slowly over time as you get your fills, I find that with each fill I have learned new tricks and problems, I think I am at the sweet spot now so hopefully that will stabelize. I too wondered early on what all the talk was about when people were saying they could not eat this or that, but now I TOTALLY understand. LOL. Good luck to you, for me it took about 5 fills to get to the right spot, some take 1 or 2 others 5+ but you will know when you get there.

That was going to be my comment, you are working with an unfilled band, once you start getting fills and have restriction it does change. For some rather dramatically, for others not so much. I could eat scrambled eggs fine until my last fill, not anymore.