LeighaMason

Shammah-- Your vacation pics are wonderful. I am so jealous of the cruise, hopefully by next summer I will be in a position to hire someone to work at my "dealership" and I can have a vacation. Melody-- Fingers crossed for the "not hungry" to continue.. Bob-- Just say you forgot to weigh and do it tomorrow instead or maybe next week all the fluid will be gone and it will seem like you lost a bunch.. A few weeks ago my Dr's marketing director asked me to be on the monthly newsletter so I wrote a short blurb and sent them some pictures. So yesterday I got a thank you card in the mail and $100 check! My local grocery store had apples on sale so I used the money to buy apples, jars, an apple peeler, and a cookbook holder and canned 40 jars of spiced apples. If y'all will PM me your addresses I will send y'all some. :cursing: PS I used 50/50 sugar/splenda so they aren't too bad for you.

There is a new plus size resale shop in Tyler. Maybe you could bring some of your too big stuff and get some just right stuff.

Wow! According to my calculator that is around 500 calories a day. I'm glad your doing well. I hope it stays the same for you. If you get a chance please update us with how your instructions from the Dr are worded. Anybody else's Dr say 1/2 cup a meal?

Twinkles-- You only eat 1/2 cup a meal 3 times a day? Or 1 1/2 cup of food a day?

Don't worry about calories, your body can make its own energy from reserves, just worry about getting enough water and protein. Congratulations about not being hungry!

You know what? I have always been successful at anything I tried to do except lose weight. So when someone says "Your not losing weight because your lazy", I know they are WRONG! I couldn't lose weight (and keep it off) because I had a big stomach and it took a large amount of food to fill that stomach, now that I am banded, it doesn't. Big stomach= too much food to fill it = fat. Small stomach= little portions of food= thin. Its simple math. (Disclaimer: There are several variables, including but not limited to good placement by your surgeon, fills that are done in an organized way, learning to overcome the habit of overeating, learning to eat the right foods but for me, the band makes it all possible. )

When I was at full restriction, I would eat 4 oz of meat (by weight) plus a 1/2 cup of veggies, and 1/4 cup of starch for each meal. Liquids go through the band and are not in any danger of stretching your pouch (which I believe is the main reason to limit your meal sizes) so you can have more at one time. I usually had a cup of liquid (8 fl. oz) at a time during any liquid stage. I could have as many cups as I wanted during the day as long as my calories stayed in line.

I think a slider is: A) Anything that goes quickly through the band and doesn't keep you satisfied for a normal amount of time. :thumbup: Anything that goes through the band so easily that you can eat an unlimited amount. Sliders can also be nutritious, for me, chili and Soup slide right through my band and leave me hungry an hour later. But chips and salsa are the slider that I have to watch out for, I can eat an unlimited amount without becoming full. If I am going to eat them, I need to measure out a portion and not just eat them out of the bag because there is no STOP signal involved.

Dr Kim in Colleyville did my surgery but I get fills under floro at Forest Park Medical Center. My fill nurse there does fills for several Dr's. Plus she is banded so she knows what she is doing!

Melody-- Don't give up! I know its slow sometimes but it will work for you, keep trying. Stacie-- Love the tat, I have been wanting one too but with 3 teenagers in the house and one that is about to turn 18 next week I really don't want to encourage anybody to do anything rash. You know how it is when someone gets one it starts you wanting one too, or it does to me. Crystl-- I'm with you on the saggy skin thing, I'm turning into an elephant. I went to the deer lease late yesterday afternoon and when I was opening the gate I noticed an armadillo rooting around so I walked over and started taking pictures of him (they are almost blind and you can get close enough to pet them if you want) So then I looked up and saw 6 wild hogs staring at me from about 100 yards! For those of you who don't live where there are wild hogs, 6 wild hogs can kill you. (You can only see the biggest pig, he is the black blob in the top right hand part of the shade) After I took the picture they started coming toward me. So this is me running to the car. Then this morning this little guy flew in my office and landed on the blinds, then he let me pick him up and take him outside. I have to say its been a strange couple of days.

With my band full=pain, so I try to stop at not-hungry or as I call it the "2 bites before full". This is a learned behavior there is no way to teach it. I had to sit and eat by myself, take a bite, chew well, swallow, wait about 30 seconds and think about how my chest felt, then take another bite. When I ate too much and had pain, I tried to think back to exactly how I felt 2 bites before the pain and that is how I learned where my stopping point was. Now (unless I am mindlessly eating) as soon as I get that "2 bites till full" feeling I stop right then. However, I am a slow learner cause this took about 6 months to learn.

I hope you know I wasn't trying to criticizing your choice on your original Dr or say I did a better job of choosing mine, that wasn't what I meant, I just think your right he sucked on many levels. I was also thinking about your fills. I am with Betsy, now that you have healed you should try some small fills and see if you can get help with your hunger. I found that after the first couple of fills, I could only get .2 of a cc at a time in a 10 cc band so if you go by % of fill giving you 1 cc is like giving me 2.5 cc's at a time, or 10 times more than I could take, no wonder you ended up in the hospital. If I were you I would try getting the first couple of fills at .5cc and then once you start feeling restriction getting .1cc at a time, and spacing the fills out every six weeks or so. The stopping of the hunger for me was between 5.1cc and 5.5. I think maybe (because of your incompetent Dr) you went from too loose to too tight and never found a happy medium. In relation to a 10 cc band you went from 5cc to 7.5cc with no stops in between.

Cleo's Mom-- I think you have a bad band placement, besides the fact that your original Dr used an older version of the band, I think he installed it poorly. Have you talked to your new Dr about a revision? I wonder if you could get insurance approval to take out the old band and replace it with a newer version and install it properly? My Dr really stressed the importance of using a Dr who had performed hundreds of band surgeries, he said placement was more important than band size, type, etc.

Before I was banded I had a very large stomach and it took a large amount of food to fill it. I would eat a huge plate of food, three times a day, I was always HUNGRY!. Then I had lap band and a reasonable amount of food makes me not hungry and I stay full for a few hours. It has been a complete relief from the HUNGRY MONSTER that had been on my back.

HD, Do you mind sharing your first name? You sound like you are exactly like I was in losing my last 15, I was semi tight and it took an effort to eat, a lot of times I would just give up, I wasn't "full" but I was tired of trying. So after I got to goal I had .2 removed and now I can pretty much eat without thinking about it, I just have to be careful to not put too much food on my plate or I will mindlessly eat too much and then be in pain.

Yeah, you better make plans to rob the bank.

Sorry I haven't been online for a few days to answer your question. When I was banded last year, the surgeons in Mexico, that I checked with, were using the old Lapband from Allergan, but I wanted the newest AP system. Three generations of improvements: 2007 - The LAP-BAND AP System 2004 - The LAP-BAND VG System 2001 - The 9.75/10 LAP-BAND System If your Dr is using J&J they have 3 improvements as well, if it is important to you, and you want the newest system, you should check to see if they are using the Realize Band-C. Three generations of improvements: 2009 - REALIZE Band-C 2007 - REALIZE Band 1996 - SAGB (Outside US)

Hey Everyone, I have been a way for a few days, life has run me over. I am doing my maintenance and its going pretty good. I was scared because I have lost weight before and as soon as I stopped trying to lose I would gain back but this time seems different. I am staying at 132-133 for the most part. Last week I was eating my homemade salsa with chips every night and one day I was 136 but I stopped that and went back down to 133 in just a few days without any real effort. Next Wednesday is my bandaversary and I am happy about my band.

In Mexico they use the old style band not the new improved version. That is why it is cheaper it is not the same thing. If I were going to Mexico because that is all I could afford I would get the sleeve. I was cash pay and I used a Dr in Dallas for $10,200.

I started at 195 and ended at 132-135. It took me 10 months. I started out losing 1-2 pounds a week and then it slowed down when I had 15 left to go and I was only losing .5 pound a week, I had to burn off the last 15. I was eating 800 calories a day, running a 5K three times a week and I had to quit drinking wine completely.

Good morning everyone. Well I am still doing my maintenance. I have been lazy and not working out at all, plus I had canned some tomatillo-apple salsa and I was eating that (with corn chips) every day for a week, and then added my Sunday night treat of a cupcake on top of that and by Monday morning I had gained 3 pounds. The good news is that I just stopped with the chips and salsa and was able to lose the 3 pounds by Thursday. I think weighing every day is the key to keeping the weight off, if I go outside of the 132-135 range then I have to act right for a few days and get back to it.

Melody, Your 5 pounds is probably a combo of water retention from the salt in restaurant food and when I work out more than usual my body retains water for a few days too. I bet it goes away in a couple of days. Stacie-- What about the sleeve if you have to have revision? That is my backup plan. Bob-- Good luck with the panni, I would like to do some CS but A) I'm scared of the pain, :biggrin: I cant take off work and most of all C) NO MONEY. I am kind of irritated that, after losing all this weight I am not more happy with my body. I guess I thought I was going to get my 20 year old body back. SHEESH!

I added you back to the spreadsheet and added 10 new lines for anyone else who wants to be added.

The exact same thing happened when I was first banded, I told my husband "But I am doing everything right!" and he was like "um, no your not" once I started weighing and measuring my food and logging my calories I found lots of hidden calories that were adding up. Its like balancing your checkbook in your head, if you write enough $25.99 checks and only "head" count them as $25 you will eventually be overdrawn. To make good food decisions you need facts not estimates. I only lost weight at 800-1000 calories so if you keep a food journal it gives you the ability to track and see where your best calorie range is. Good luck, Leigha