OnTheWay to Thin

pineapple juice, is both slippery and also has an acid that helps break down food... sip it for a while and good luck.

I started having a huge reflux issue, had to be unfilled, wait 2 weeks, then start slowly filling back up. So I am mostly unchanged, but down a lb or 2 since the fillup so I am hoping...

the trick is not to let yourself get adjusted too tight, the tighter you are the less you can eat and the more things that no longer work. I recently had to have some Fluid removed because I was too tight, it was quite a learning experience but I feel so much better now.

Call your doctor, sometimes it takes a few days for the full effect of the fill to be known and you may have a tad too much...

Hey I am sorry to hear your trouble, can you tell me what lead them to believe that your band was slipped? I have been feeling something is wrong too but cant put a finger on it and have the same questions you have about what if it has to come out. Afraid to live with it and afraid to live without it...

Please let me know what your doctor says, it sounds like what happens to me. I get too tight and have reflux, they unfil me and then I am too loose. I have also noticed an issue with liquids, especially if I have eaten within a few hours.. it is quite weird, meanwhile my weight loss is totally stalled...

I am a bit delayed in my loosing as I had to have my port replaced 6 mos in, it was leaky and would not hold liquid, I would get a fill, I would deflate, very funny now, not so much then! I guess my best advise is to always go slow after a fill, each time I have one (once i got restriction) what I can and can't eat changes. So although you may be able to eat say scrambled eggs now, later maybe not. It took me a bit of time to figure it out, as gee just last week it worked, then suddenly it doesn't.

This is a lifetime of eating behavior that we have to change, so it is something you have to be in for the long haul. I have learned a lot about myself and my eating addiction, when and why I eat and feel I have a lot more to learn.

we have all been there, my experience is cake does not work, no way no how. Once I had restriction, it is always a recipe for tossing my Cookies. So I avoid it like the plague. Hang in there.

You sound like the perfect candidate for a band, with the potential for diabetes and the cholesterol, back surgery and all you could improve all of those issues/conditions with weight loss. I have a really bad knee and Type 2 in my family all over the place, however even though I have only lost a bit over 60 lbs in just over a year, my blood sugar is no longer prediabetic, I am off of my arthritis and cholesterol medications, and I suspect I will go off of my blood pressure pill at the next doctor appointment. Definitely give it some serious thought, go to a seminar and then make an informed decision. We are all here to support you on your journey.

Yes I don't feel the full impact of a fill for a week or so, have no idea why, may be a bit of Fluid in the tube continues to settle down into the band?

There is adult liquid tylenol and it is cherry flavored (sort of) I found it at Fred Meyers.

are you throwing up every few minutes, (your saliva filling your stomach) if so get back to a doctor immediately. Sometimes when you get a fill you have some swelling and that makes it worse the first few days, but you should always be able to get Water and broth type stuff down. If you cant you are in real danger of dehydration and that is nothing to fool around with. After my port revision surgery they overfilled me and I could not even swallow my own spit, this is no fun and not worth it, so get this taken care of.

All individual policies that I have ever seen exclude obesity surgery, they just flat dont offer the coverage, so be very careful with this. I worked in insurance a good deal of my life, and just like going to the grocery store and choosing the items you need to make a particular dish, an employer has the option of choosing the coverages they want to provide and want to exclude. Good luck to you.

The way it was explained to me is that there is some fat between the band and stomach, so as you loose, the fat between the stomach and band melts away, as that happens the band will loosen up, this happens more in the beginning but as you loose weight, and get closer to the sweet spot it is less frequent.

Brown your roast first. Then if you cook very low and slow and put beef stock in the pan (and put a lid on the pan while cooking) I get very good results with tender beef. But you need to cook at about 275 for the first couple hours, then if you want a bit of browning take off the lid and take heat up to 325 for 30-45 minutes.

Yeah we have all been there and it is hard. My doctor told me not to worry too much about trying to lose until I had my fills, but I wanted so bad not to gain what I lost. So what I did was increase my consumption of veggies that basically have no calories or very few, this kept me satisfied longer and did not cause weight gain. It does get better, but it is a tough time between surgery and fills...

Both surgery and weight loss throw your cycle off. We women store estrogen in our fat, so the issues post surgery run the gamet of having too many periods, none and so on for a few months. Hang in there it will get back to normal.

I dont know what it is about chicken, I could eat it fine until my last fill, but no more. I think that somehow once chicken is chewed it becomes starchy and gluey... I also can no longer eat a hamburger patty, I do ok with taco meat or in some kind of gravy or sauce, but plain burger, no dice. Each fill what I can eat changes a bit, it is all a big learning process. Hang in there.

Ah if you are old, then so am I and I am not ready to be! I was banded a little over a year ago, but did not really get started until last November, (I had a faulty port and had to have it replaced), so no you are not alone. Even though some days are hard, I would do it again in a minute. I feel it is a life saving thing for me, I was over 60lbs heavier and have gone from a size 24/26 to an 18. I am by no means done but I am very pleased with my slow steady progress. Best of luck.

I still have those issues a year out, it takes a long time to retrain yourself to eat slower, chew chew chew, dont swallow to soon. It is kind of funny to begin with I was so careful, but it seems like at about 1 year, I backslid in my speed of eating and of course that brought lots more PB's. It is a big retraining process, hang in there.

I did too, and I just added chicken or veg broth to thin if necessary. Made it a lot easier to have something with flavor and nutrients in it.

I am with you all, I have not been getting updates either! I am still holding, not going down, go up 1 down 1. I went in for another fill this week and I hope (fingers crossed) that that will do the trick. I feel like I am losing as slow as molasses in the winter but I am not gaining so I guess that is something. Since my fill I have noticed a big difference in what I am eating, so maybe soon... Ann you are doing awesome, I wish I was where you are!

for sweet tooth there are a lot of options out there now. I buy the yogurt they are advertising on tv, the whipped ones, and freeze them, they are only 60 calories and feel like you are eating sinful chocolate. I also use skinny cow ice cream, sugar free pudding, sugar free whip cream, sugar free Jello, there are lots of ways to still have a bit of what you crave without tanking your weight loss. This has taken me time to learn, but it is working. For Protein meats, tuna, cheese, chicken, prawns, chili, humus, are all good choices.

For menu options my day is something like this.

Breakfast Special K Protein shake.

lunch, a small portion of meat and veggies, or a cup of chili, or a small taco salad with fat free dressing, or a cup of Soup.

Mid afternoon is when I get hungry at times, if I do I eat a string cheese or a fat free low calorie yogurt.

dinner, salad, a veggie and a small portion of meat.

Occasionally I have some sort of Pasta with a light sauce or casserole, but when I have something heavier like that, I increase the salad and eat smaller portion of the heavier item. dinner is a total of about 1 cup of food, lunch around 3/4 a cup.

Hope this helps.

It can take 10 days to 2 weeks for all the swelling to do down, you had major surgery and likely have 4-5 incisions that are all swollen and healing. As long as you can get liquids down you are probably ok, but do check with your doctor. I had the same as you guys and about 8-9 days out I started feeling dramatically better, but it is different for everyone. Good luck.

I think what works as a slider is different for everyone. For me it is some kinds of mexican foods, basically they are foods you can eat much more of than you are supposed to because they tend to go through the band. Also I have heard that milk shakes, mashed potatoes, ice cream are all sliders for most people although I have trouble with cold drinks like milk shakes and they tend to come back up. It is one of those things you just have to play with and identify what works and does not work for you.