SoccerMomma73

When you're having 4 million cravings and you end up eating greek yogurt with a hand full of crushed almonds on it....

Stacie, nope, never heard of it Mine gets a little achy anytime I do something different physically mine gets a little sore for a day or two but nothing like you're describing. Sorry! Denise-I've always agreed, when I lose someone else is gaining somewhere, when I gain, someone else is losing... Somewhere on the flip side of this are a whole lot of people putting on a whole lot of weight that we (collectively) as kicking butt losing. From the looks of things, it's a bunch of teenagers in arkansas, sadly enough.

Cocoa-it's Leigha...she gave up wine and is losing your share of the weight! Steve is behaving decently. Days are pretty good, I can actually eat Breakfast (which typically is the first thing to go when I get a fill) and evenings are tough. I'm sitting here right now contemplating what I won't eat this evening. Of course horones are in full swing and all I can think of is chocolate covered pretzels, thank God there are none anywhere near. We went to a roller skating party today and I won't be able to walk tomorrow. :: why are weekends so short????

I'm sorry this has been hard for you. I do wish we knew more so maybe we could help. That said, banded life isn't a walk in the park. I was fairly well educated on the process but it still isn't really what I expected (I don't really think you can know until you've done it yourself and seen how your body handles it). I love my band, even when it's being a pain in my ass. It allows me to eat in moderation, like a "normal" person which allows me to feel good enough I can get out and be much more physically active. But that's just me. You are now banded. My advice would be to make the best of it and give it some time, maybe it'll work out in the end? Take advantage of the tool you've been given, and, this was said above, do your best to work on the attitude. A huge component of the obesity battle (for most of us) is mental and emotional and looking at it the way you are, you will never like it, you're setting yourself up for failure. Good luck.

I would not go more than a couple hours not being able to swallow clear liquids/saliva or you will get dehydrated, as you get dehydrated you band gets tighter and it is all downhill from there (been there, done that). I'd try sipping warm tea or taking a break for a little bit, if neither of those help or you start getting weak/dizzy/stop peeing etc go to the ER. You might try calling your doc, he may have other arrangements for emergencies...ERs are typically not real band friendly. Good luck and keep us updated!

Typically tomato soup is okay for a full liquid diet and not allowed on a clear liquid diet. I reread your post after typing that and see it says you CAN have tomato, you're just not sure if you should due to the acidity. Oops! Have you had any problem with reflux since surgery? Does tomato soup typically bother you? If you're doing fine and it hasn't been a problem in the past I'd probably go for it, a sip at a time, and see how you do. If it has ever given you issues previously I'd stay away! Good luck and welcome to the club!

Glad I could help. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow (or surf right along). I think between weeks 2 and 4 I lost a total of 1 or 2 pounds and wasn't thrilled with the whole thing but I'm now just shy of 8 months out and 80 pounds down...it DOES get better :party:

You need to do a search on here about bandster hell...you are smack dab in the middle of it. BH is that time a few weeks after surgery where you're swelling goes down but you don't have any (or have very little) restriction from your empty or nearly empty band. Do some research and you'll feel much better. As said above, this is the time for healing and learning new habits, not for focusing on major weight loss. Many people lose very little the first weeks/months after surgery, a few lose none or even gain. I was not prepared for this period. I went in to surgery expecting to immediately have a small stomach and be barely able to eat, I was, for 9 days...then all hell broke lose and I was starving to death. My doc/nurse/nutritionist had not warned me about this. I started thinking I'd made the biggest (and most expensive) mistake of my life...then I googled "2 weeks post lap band and starving" and found this forum and it all clicked. Follow your doctors orders, don't eat what you are not supposed to, your body needs the time to heal. Exercise and get into a regular routine exercising, your body needs it to boost your metabolism and lose weight, it will also help maintain your weight once it is gone. Get your Protein in...most of us here don't lose when we aren't getting our protein, it's essential. Drink drink drink your Water....be patient. Take a deep breath and relax. I read on one of your posts that you're about 2 weeks post op and down 13 pounds and feel like that's not fast enough. Oh child are you setting yourself up for misery. The band is not a miracle (well, not true, I actually think it IS a miracle but even the band can't make fat vanish) and does not make the weight disappear over night...it took years to get where you are and will take time to get where you want. 1-2 pounds a week appears to be average, it doesn't sound like much, but if you're consistant with it, it can be 100+ pounds in a year...which is huge, PLUS, your chances of keeping it off this time are so much higher! Try not to obsess about the numbers, do your best to help yourself, but don't set yourself up for disappointment, you have to be realistic with your new band. It takes a while to reach restriction and takes a while to develop new/better eating and exercise habits. If you are willing to work with it and make the changes you will succeed but it does take time. Good luck, I know it's hard, we all want it to come off fast, but it does take a while.

Keep in mind everyone's metabolism is different and some might lose at 800, some might lose at 1200, some might lose at 1500...the more active you are and the longer you stick with it the better your metabolism is, so that definitely helps but it varies a LOT from person to person. Good luck!

I would say more pressure and discomfort than anything EXCEPT when trying to sit up or stand up...that was painful, but only for a second while I was in the process. I had forgotten since my c-section and gallbladder surgeries, how much you use those stomach muscles when you're trying to get up. I was at home, alone with my then 5 year old taking care of him completely on my own by day 3. I was a little tired and achy but really that was all. I took pain meds once or twice during the day the first 4 days then only at bedtime the next 3 or 4 days (had a little trouble getting comfortable, I'm a tummy sleeper). On average, I'd say the pain was a 3-4, occasionally a 5, when trying to sit/stand maybe an 8 but just for a sec and once I was up it was all good again.

Jen-like I said above, I had a bit of a mourning period. I realized about 5 or 6 weeks in that I wasn't myself...I was just kind of blue, nothing terrible, but not my happy cheerful self. Eventually I figured it out. I have spent my entire adult life filling the gaps with food...when I was sad, I ate, when I was happy, I ate, when my heart got broke, I ate...and suddenly I couldn't eat. I hadn't been cooking much and I really missed the whole concept of a good meal so I started cooking again. Completely different than before, focusing much more on quality than quantity instead like before when it was all about how much I could make so I could fill myself up. I can buy better stuff because I don't have to buy as much. It took a couple weeks to pull myself out of the funk but I filled it with exercise and playing with my six year old son and I am awesome now. Food and I have a MUCH better relationship. I enjoy good food, but I'm no longer the obsessed teenager following it around worrying about it all the time. In a way, it makes me feel free :redface: My doc had talked to me pre-op about my relationship with food but I was not prepared for what I felt, it was truly, on many levels, like losing my best friend. Good luck!

Each fill is a baby step in the right direction. While I didn't reach good restriction until #3 (and I feel blessed to have found it that early) with each I got full a little faster and ate a little less...even if I didn't get full when I should or stay full as long as I should, with each fill it got easier and easier. A lot of this is a mental game. Try to keep your chin up and find the good in all of it or you can totally psych yourself out and sabotage yourself. Good luck!

1-that 2 weeks out I'd be starving...I knew it took "a bit" to find restriction...I didn't realize I'd feel like I was starving to death before I got there. 2-that I was losing what I thought was my best friend (food) and would have a mourning period where I felt lost...it wasn't terrible, just very, very unexpected. 3-how freaking good it would feel to start having clothes fall off and not be avoiding mirrors any longer. I have NO regrets (except maybe not doing it sooner). And nothing has been terrible by any means. Recovery was a piece of cake and I a thrilled with where I am at this point.

You are such an inspiration. Congrats on your success so far, you are doing great! Keep up the good work and keep us up to date! Come on 210's!!!!

Go elfie, go elfie!!! I'm curious to start solids and see where my restriction is at, when I'm on liquids I notice very little unless I'm super dooper tight (which I don't wanna be, ever, again). My docs office has changed their lapband diet so I'm now supposed to eat 4 meals a day (before they said no snacking, no snacking, 3 meals but no snacking ever...) So, hey, I'm supposed to eat more! Not sure how I'm going to work that with the work schedule but we'll see how it plays out.

I'm curious who is doing her fills. And why she is still getting fills if she's this full? Something isn't right and she needs and appointment with her doc/PA/NP whomever, not for a fill, but to sit down and discuss her problems and yeah, she probably needs a slight unfill. Now, I personally know several people who keep their band so tight they can barely eat and vomit frequently....they want to lose the weight faster (but in fact a couple have sabotaged themselves and are gaining because they're living on crap). Life with a band should not be miserable. You SHOULD be able to go out and eat a fairly normal meal with your family and not be miserable. Good luck with everything! On an average day I kinda forget my band is there....it's fairly amazing actually.

She added 0.7 today, so half of what he took out last month. Between the adding and subtracting I've forgotten exactly where I am but it's somewhere around 7.1 which puts me somewhere between my second and third fills way back in Feb/Mar. Oy. I'm on liquids through tomorrow so I'm still thinking the Bob diet is the way to go.

That's it, I'm going on Bob's diet too darn it!

My band does not like snot! Anytime I'm congested or stuffy I'm tight. I'm one of the freaks that had an unfill months after a fill. My last fill was in March, kept getting tighter until I had a little taken out in June, then totally obstructed and got dehydrated in July and had to have an emergency partial unfill....the doc is still not real sure what happened. y first fill since March is tomorrow, we're gonna go slow but I'm a tad bit anxious after the whole dehydration incident. Good luck!

10 pounds, 6 weeks....I think I was about 3 1/2 weeks and I forgot about it for a sec and reached down to grab a 60 pound 5 year old...and quickly remembered... I say better safe than sorry. And, you CAN hold hime propped on a pillow on your lap, you just have to get someone else to put him up there... Good luck!

I stayed in the hospital gown with another one on backwards when I got up to walk, which I did often...so often they quit counting and told me I was "obviously going to handle this without problem" which, hey, is exactly the type of patient I want to be. My first post op request was "may I PLEASE put my underwear on????" I took a book (which I didn't read), my cell phone and charger (which saved me from boredom), lip balm (#1 necessity), pillow for the ride home (#2 necessity), toothbrush/paste, hairbrush, deodorant (#3 necessities). I wore leggings, a sports bra, and long/oversized t-shirt for the ride home.... It was a very uneventful hospital stay (which is the best type to have). Good luck!!!

AHHH!!!! Back for a refill tomorrow...and nervous as all get out. I say I'll stay on liquids for, oh 12 months or so but we'll see :thumbup: Jacki-as long as you are happy with your progress nothing else matters right? Congrats on your success so far!

I never actually "saw" myself in a mirror before. If I did my hair or make-up, I looked only at what I was working on. I never looked at "me". Now I look at me and think WTF?!?!?! I'm learning to focus more on the positive but I do ALWAYS see the negative. But now, in addition to bat wings and a saggy belly I have boobs and a waist line. Bat wings and sag can be hid in clothes. Boobs and waist can be accentuated in clothes....it all works out. Learn to love the new you. It will take time. But for every negative, find a positive and eventually, hopefully, you'll focus more of the positives. Good luck!

TBS there ya go, much better attitude and it will take you far. SOOOOOO much of this weight loss thing is mental. You stress and worry and you stop losing. You don't lose what you expect, you get upset, you stress, you worry, you don't lose weight. See a pattern? The whole band experience is very very different for each of us. Thirteen pounds in a week is HUGE. Go to the store, put 13 pounds of hamburger in your cart and stare at it...and think "this is what came off me in 7 days?!?!" sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. (the put it back because it will take you FOREVER to eat 13 pounds of meat now). I average 1-2 a week. Then I gain 2 and hold it for 2 weeks, then I lose 4 and stay there for a week...it is incredibly unpredictable. Even when I'm sure I ate the same amount and exercised the same amount the weight loss/gain is never the same...that'd be way too easy :rolleyes2:. Keep your chin up, as I said before, with your determination you will do great. But there is a HUGE learning curve with this thing and it really does take a while, sometimes months to reach your optimal level. I hit good restriction at 3 months and feel lucky that I found it so early (and then lost it, long story involving swelling shut, dehydration, and a partial unfill) and am anxiously awaiting a refill so I can do more than maintain. I have talked to many on here that did not find good restriction for 6-9-even 12 months. And a few who had it from the first fill, so here's hoping you're one of the lucky ones that hits it early on! Good luck!

I have a spot on my butt that is now "bony" and hurts when I sit for long, I'm constantly shifting around.....is this what it's like for "normal people"?? I still have padding every where else. How can I possibly have a bony spot in the one and only spot I need a cushion???? Three days 'til fill!! Woohoo (and yet petrified at the same time!) I've been in Memphis for the last day and a half. It was a blast and we walked until we almost died so good exercise (in the 100+ degree swelteringly humid weather). But we also ate, and ate, and ate....Sooo...I'm not weighing until Monday and then only so I'll be prepared for the docs office on Tuesday so I don't break down and sob if it's not decent. Have a lovely weekend and GO TEAM BAND!!!! Rah rah rah! (hey, so Bob didn't end up requiring cheerleaders but I'm determined to get it out somewhere)