LeighaMason

I am so happy for you, does a bandiversary mean presents like a birthday or anniversary? I'm thinking yes!

Congratulations! 60 is wonderful. Everything else is gravy!

No that isn't going to happen, its mathematically impossible. If you eat the appropriate amount of calories and burn a good amount it will stay off. Its all math. I think your trainer is basing this on people who are not banded and use diet pills or fad diets to lose and then when they go back to "normal" eating they regain. Because you are banded you never have go back to your previous way of eating so you will not have the regain. Banding has one of the best rates of people who maintain their weight loss of any type of "diet". (I will add that if you do start eating junk food with too many calories and not working out you can regain but I am sure you know that.) BTW-- Your doing a fabulous job! Keep it up!

Good morning everyone. So we get to the wedding last night and I get ready to take some pictures and I didn't think to charge the batteries on the camera. So the only pictures I have are cell phone pictures, but they aren't too bad. We had a nice time, the bride was beautiful and we met some new people. My shoes didn't hurt my feet at all! I am very excited about that. Plus the person who I was dreading seeing was not there so that was nice as well.

Opportunity knocks once. Go for it.

1) Other than rare cases (1%) it takes several fills to get restriction, so basically your in the 99% with the rest of us. 2) At my last fill I thought they had poked a hole in my band because not only did I not have an increase in restriction but it seemed like what I had was gone. Fast forward 10 days and BAM!, sweet spot perfection, not too loose, not too tight and its been like that for a couple of months now. My advice, Keep the faith! You can do it! You will get restriction but its going to take some time. Read the posts from people who got filled too fast, had to have a complete unfill, wait 6 weeks and start again, you don't want that. Slow and steady wins the race. OK, cliché time is over, but you know what I mean.

The great thing about these boards is everyone gets to respond in their own way. You give advice your way and Bob can give his anyway he chooses. There is no required reading on this site so if you find a thread you don't like, feel free not to click on it in the future. Plus, your going to call Denise out on eating Subway when your are advocating self fills? WOW!

Your right, one more try may be for you. I had just had "one more try" too many. I was tired of being HUNGRY! Every time I was on a diet, I was HUNGRY!, I could eat a full plate of food and still be hungry. This is what the band does for me, I eat a small plate of food and I am no longer hungry. Don't get me wrong if I go too long without eating I can get hungry again but its not the constant "OMG I am STARVING!" kind of HUNGRY! its the "I could eat something" type of hungry that normal people have. Plus I have had surgery on both my feet for heel spurs and it was totally weight related. Now I am actually running a 5K three times a week with no foot problems. As far as the "to alter our eating habits, to start walking after dinner and going to the gym in the mornings." goes, you will need to do that with the band too. Good luck with your decision.

Here is some preview pics of my new shoes, since my boobs are gone it think it will be safe to wear them without someone thinking I am a stripper.

When I exercise the next day I am up a pound or two, it has to do with the lactic acid (I think that is what its called, bit it might be a different acid.) that is generated in your muscles when you exercise, it makes you retain water for a couple of days but it is temporary. By the way, I never consider less than 3 pounds a gain. If it is 3 pounds or less, I just say "Oh thats water" and go on about my business and the weight will be gone in a day or two. If its 4 pounds or more then I consider it a gain and start trying to tweak something. Exercise = long term results! ETA- I use string cheese, greek yogurt and EAS carbadvantage shakes to meet my daily protein goals.

I consider my band a diet but it is a diet with an end. I could adopt the approach that Hummingbird (and lots of others) use but I am more of an aggressive type person, not better just different (OK, really, I am probably a control freak to a fault). So I plan my meals, measure everything, journal everything, I have a structured workout plan and a goal date. Its what works for me. Once I get to goal I plan on adding calories a couple of hundred at a time each week until I find where my balance point is and I will continue journal my food until I know that I am eating the correct amount and then I will stop journaling once I am comfortable that I have it under control. So yes, I am on a diet, but the difference is this diet has an end. Thank god!

The pre-op diet is not for losing weight, its not so your Dr can torture you, its so you will have the best chance at having a SAFE surgery. Its to protect your health. Its to shrink your liver and provide access to your stomach. I did a 2 week liquid diet of 5 Optifast shakes a day and Water, only. But since I thought it was important to live through the surgery, I did what my Dr ordered. Support is one thing but telling someone that its OK to disregard their Dr's medical advice, which could affect the outcome of their surgery and adversely affect their health, that is not support. Tracie-- You should call your Dr and let him/her know what you have been eating and confirm that it is still safe for you to have surgery. The Dr needs to know what s/he is actually working with instead of thinking that you have been on the pre-op diet. In my Dr's written instructions it stated that if he started the banding procedure and then was able to tell that I had not followed the diet based on stomach or intestine contents that he would sew me up and send me on my way without the band. Oh, and he would keep my $10K that I had paid. I am not trying to minimize the difficulty of the pre and post op diets. I know its hard but its not something that is optional.

Maybe you could tie your ice cream eating to your wanting to get pregnant. I do this when I have one thing I want more than another such as, "If I don't eat ice cream daily I will have a better chance of getting pregnant and having a healthy baby so I will limit my ice cream eating to one day a week" Then when the urge hits ask yourself "Ice cream or baby? Which one do I want more?" These "mind tricks" help me, maybe they can help you too.

Well I scraped another pound off, took 18 days. 8 to go. I went shopping yesterday! I bought a really pretty dress (size 8) and Jessica Simpson shoes with 5" heels :thumbup:! I have a wedding to go to Friday. There will be a lot of people there that I haven't seen since before I was banded. I am excited and nervous. My ex-"friend" who I ejected from my life after she showed her bad attitude about banding will be there. She is thin and thinks everyone should just eat less and exercise like she does. I am hoping to just avoid her. I'm not sure if the bride knows we had a falling out and if she doesn't she probably put us at the same table, so mingling will be in order. I will post pictures when I get them.

I was too tight, they took out one-tenth of a CC (.1) and I was perfect. I am a firm believer that being too tight causes 90% of the problems people have with their bands. When I am have let myself get too hungry, I drink a Protein drink and wait 10 min to eat. This takes the edge off my hunger and allows me to have the self control to eat slowly and is only an extra 110 calories.

For those of you not on facebook, Betsy's husband had a heart attack last night, she requested prayers.

I am 8 pounds from goal! It took 18 days to lose the last pound so I am really going to have to work to be at goal by October 20th. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,...

The sleeve is my backup plan, if I ever lose my band that is what I will do. If I had known more about it I might have even gotten it done in the first place but I was so into the reversible/adjustable aspect of the band that I didn't even consider it. I know this, I will be banded or have a sleeve, I will never go back to original condition!

I know weigh in isn't until Monday, but since it took 18 days to lose this pound I am counting it today! 8 pounds to goal! Go me!:thumbup:

Don't panic. It will be fine. Yes, you will have a different feeling when you are finished eating instead of full but its not unpleasant. And sometimes when I am enjoying something I eat till my little pouch is full and then I regret it! :thumbup: But I am satisfied after I eat my little meals. But like I always say "Sometimes my stomach is satisfied but my mouth is still hungry" when something tastes really good. But here is the important part, now between meals I start feeling a "need to eat" instead of being "HUNGRY!" The band has helped me so much with hunger control, (I guess I should say the band with my fills) because at first I was so hungry, too! But just hang on and do your best to wait out bandster hell and it will get better once the fills start. I also would like to recommend that once you start eating real food again you should stop drinking all juices until you go into your maintenance stage and then reintroduce it slowly, because your right, it can stop weight loss. But if you need it now to get through the liquid stage, by all means use it. Good luck and try not to worry, your doing a good job!

I lose slower when I eat packaged processed foods. I cook from scratch and freeze single portions that can then be heated up. I seal them in food saver bags that can be dropped in a pot of boiling water or microwaved. Much cheaper and better for you.