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Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your weight loss so far! Whether or not you get a fill on January 4 will be a decision made between you and your doctor. Weight loss is only one part of that decision making process. My surgeon and I always discuss how much I am eating, how long before I feel hungry (physically hungry, not head hunger), and whether I have any difficulties with any foods. Sometimes I know, going into the appointment, that I don't need a fill and I say so. Sometimes I think I might need a fill but he explains that I don't and other times we agree on giving me a fill and whether it should be small or larger. Work with your team to make sure that you get the best results that you can.

Congrats I was band on 11/2 I didn't need a fill cuz I was losing and I'm still losing slow but better the gaining Sent from my iPhone using LapBandTalk

When I began my journey I was told no bread, no rice, no pasta. They are filled with carbs..I wonder if the carbs might be holding you back from losing weight?

I only weigh in every two weeks and so I was convinced I hadn't lost any weight the past two weeks with the holidays and all. I was super shocked when I weighed in today and found I had lost 12 lbs since my last weigh in. At my weight this loss isn't visible (not even to me)-but I can feel it in being able to move easier. I'm so excited. It hasn't been easy-but not really hard either. In spite of the several small issues I'm really glad I did this. I only wish I had done it years ago!!

@cj76....I feel like we are very similar. I have put on a lot of weight in the last year and really didn't even realize it was happening until I tried to put on Fall clothes from last season that were "big" on me but now I look like a sausage in casing. My children are all active and very slender and my husband is also athletic. I stick out and feel like I don't look like I belong with them. I am seriously short, 5' and fluctuate between 210-220. It just keeps creeping up.. I should be having surgery in Dec. had my psych evaluation, 2 nut visits, & my EGD is scheduled for Nov 5th. After that, I should be good to go. I love this forum though because it's nice to see others that feel the same way I do. ????

I feel the same as you guys in this post, getting close to 300 #,s and I forget how to live, when I do things with hubby and the kids/grandkids, I'm the one who is out of breath, plus I REALLY need some support,my family tries BUT I don't think the understand my struggle, I know what to do and what not to do but I fall off the wagon almost every day, I think being depressed about who I have become is really deterring my weight loss.

Hey, bigjoe! Do you have a progress post anywhere? You've lost an amazing amount of weight and I'm sure we'd all be interested in reading your journey!!

Hi all, I did really well for my first 5 months or so.. then I had a "too tight fill", and they took some out. Now, I cant seem to lose wieght. I dont feel like I am eating too much - maybe not making the wisest choices.. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I can be eating on a daily basis to be more successful??

36 year old 4 kids weight problems all my life . 210 pounds 5.2 and a lot of health problems .. a little scared

Today I officially got my insurance approval! My tentative surgery date is Aug 25. I'm 28 years old and weigh about 240 currently. I have sleep apnea and high cholesterol. I'm really excited and terrified all at once. I'm excited to finally get a grip on my weight. I've tried several times on my own. I am able to lose weight but just can not keep it off ( and it beings friends ) I'm hoping this will help. I'm so scared from basic nervousness about surgery. I have a beautiful 4 year old daughter who is autistic. She is my main motivation. Right now I have a hard time being active with her. She deserves the best from me. This is benefit is so much. Here's to a new me

Welcome! The band is definitely on its way out as more and more people are developing complications. You are to be congratulated on your weight loss and I think electing to have a VSG was a great decision. Keep us posted on your progress with getting a date and a care provider for your child.

I am introducing myself-- my name is Vanessa, and I am going to have the lap band on 9/28/09 at NYU with Dr. Christine Ren. Things happened pretty quick for me b/c I'm a bit of an insider (work at NYU)-- so I just saw everyone today in the office, start the liquid diet tomorrow and a week from Monday-- surgery. I've been doing my research and am very excited and positive about the band, but still have some reservations-- who wouldn't it is surgery, right? I am very motivated and excited to finally get my weight under control after so many years. I am 5'4 (though they measured me at 5'3, if I stand up tall, I am 5'4 to 5'4.5 !) and 193.6 pounds-- which puts me at a BMI of 34 ish. Cannot wait to see those numbers go down... I am one of those 'lower BMI' surgery candidates-- which means I am self-pay, but I cannot think of a better investment in my health and my life. I am looking forward to following my instructions down to the letter and doing great with the surgery. Looking forward to getting to know all of you as well. This was the first day of the rest of my life....

I'm booked... after a billion emails and questions to the office and to many people in this forum and another, I've booked my surgery date - June 22, 2010 - with Dr Armando Joya in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I've read through all of Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies (great book, but very gastric bypass-centric point of view) and have been reading pretty much every post that i can get time to go through on here. I think I'm ready. nervous as heck, but ready. lol I know this is the right decision for me, but it's so hard to be confident about it when not all of my family is supportive. I have one brother who is quite vocal about me making the wrong decision and nto really trying. I know he'll be there for me after it's over, but in the meantime, it leads to doubts... things like excess skin, weight gain after sleeving, and if I really have the fortitude to make this work. I assume nervousness and doubts are normal?

Happy NY! My "fun" was watching my husband drool on himself at (9:00pm) while my 5yr old son and I had a photo shoot spread featuring his face on fb! Woot woot talk about fun!! My goal (inspiration) is to drop a lot of weight by summer so I can at least get these pasty white legs out In the sun after being MIA for 15 years. My regret is being hardheaded in the gym and not learning that after you've been on a treadmill for 45 mins just because a "fit" girl gets on a treadmill beside you doesn't mean it's a "Instant competition" and you have to make damn sure she gets off her treadmill first (thus sparking the inside "that's what I though B fist pump" ) my Legs hurt!! Waaaah!

I'm happy you got the all clear. My doctor at 3 weeks- said no way. Until I'm able to consume enough calories that support regular activity that any extra workouts were out of the question and not safe. I have not updated my stats, but I'm currently 30 pounds down from my pre-hospital weight on May 1st. I am doing really good to get 500 calories in a day most of the time it's 400 or less. What is your caloric intake?

So I leave tomorrow for Mexico and have my surgery done next Friday. I have spent about 4 months reasearching everything on the Lap Band. My wife came out last night and tells me she does not agree with my decision to get this done. She tells me she will support my decision, but thinks I have not tried hard enough to lose it on my own. Over the past 14 years, I have lost 100lbs, 60lbs twice and 50lbs....only to put it all back on. My mother I told tonight and I figured she would be the critical one, but she is very supportive because she has worried about my weight problems for years now. I am kinda disappointed that my wife does not agree with this procedure, and just mentioned it to me a day before I leave!! I think more than anything I just needed to vent. We had our first child in Feb and that is when I made the final decision to go through with this, to get healthly and be there for my son for a very long time!!

When I went for my psych evaluation, the Dr. suggested 2 books: Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with food and The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person. They also have this on CD and there's a workbook you can buy that goes with it. He said they are both good since they don't focus on a specific diet but on changing the way you think about food and yourself. I have both but have only started reading the first one yesterday. I also have The Sleeved Life and that was a good book, depending on how much research you have already done. If you are far into the process, you may not learn too much but it's still a good read. I also ordered recipes for Life After Weight-Loss Surgery, Revised and Updated: Delicious Dishes for Nourishing the New You and the Latest Information on Lower-BMI Gastric Banding Procedures. I reviewed it and have begun to mark recipes that I'm going to test. The best part of this book is that it associates each meal with which phase you are in. So it has liquid, puree, soft, mechanically soft and regular meals. It also gives you eating tips for the type of bariatric surgery you are getting. This is one of the few that specifically discussed The Sleeve. Hope this helps.

Hello readers! I want to start off by saying I am writing you all my story in hopes that it will get rid of some of the emotions I am holding inside, and some of the things in my head that I've been wanting to say but didn't know who to tell. I was told by my doctor journaling is a good way to say the things that sometimes you are afraid to say, or dont know who to say them too. I figure by blogging maybe I can help someone else out with their weight loss journey along the way. So here goes nothing.. I guess I should introduce myself so you can better understand my journey. My name is Zoey and I am currently 24 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and when I started my journey I was at my heaviest(weighing in at 310 lbs on March 1st 2011.) I have been heavy all my life. Myself as well as the majority of my family have always struggled with our weight. My doctor for most my adult life had said I should look into having surgery, as I've had countless failed weight loss attempts. Prior to having surgery I had tried just about every diet on the market and taken many different kinds of weight loss pills. Yet I couldn't seem to lose much weight. Everytime it was the same thing, lose a few pounds, gain even more back. I had done all the research, weighed all the risks and talked to numerous family, friends and online support groups before making my decision to have surgery. I knew just about everything there was to know on all the different kinds of weight loss surgeries. I knew that if I didnt make a drastic change I would end up living a shorter more painful life. I dont remember the last time I loved or even liked my body. I couldn't remember the last time I could say I weighed less that 200+ pounds. March 1st was the day that changed everything, the day I attended the required informational meeting at Park Nicollet that would forever change my life. I should probably let you know I along with all my research had also looked at many options of where and who I wanted to perform my surgery. I chose Park Nicollet after finding out that all my doctors would be under one roof and there wouldnt be a ton of running around. All the doctors, nurses, and staff knew each other, worked with one another on a dialy basis, and a good majority themselves had made the decision to have weight loss surgery. My journery started March 1st with attending the meeting. Just a short time later, May 24th 2011, I under went surgery. I know many people have told me that is a short amount of time from beginning to end but let me tell you it was one of the worse, most stressful 2 1/2 months of my life. I decided in the beginning that I was only going to tell the people most important to me about my surgery. I knew that for some people deciding who you are going to tell about your decision is even more difficult than the surgery and recovery its self. Its very emotionally and mentally draining to decide who you are going to tell or if you'll just tell everyone. After telling my parents, brother and sister in law, I told a couple friends 3 to be exact. I thought that would be good enough, that was all the support and stress I needed. I soon realized for me however, there were a few more people I was going to want to tell. I had some mixed reactions in telling my family, in particular my brother. I got the same reaction from him as I knew I would get from the majority of people. He wanted me to try another diet, try working out more, try eating differently. Being that he is not over weight and never has been, I knew this would be a likely response. I initially decided I was not going to tell anyone I worked with about it and was just going to say I was having surgery and leave it at that. Yet curioscity kills that cat every time and people would ask me "what kind of surgery are you having?" I soon turned to the excuse of a car accident I had been in June 2010. Most everyone at work knew I had been in a pretty bad car accident. Most people would ask if it was because of that. My response was always "yes its surgery to help with my back pain." Although this was a cover up, it was also some what the truth. My being over weight and having injured my back the year before did not work too well together. At first this was fine and it was an easy way to avoid tellig people the truth. After time it started to bother me emotionally because I wasnt being 100% truthful with people. To date I have extended my initial list of people to include the people I talk to the most at work, the people I eat lunch with at work, and my manager. I dont regret my decision to tell the people I did the truth. I know for me over time I will most likely tell more people. For me not telling people the truth is hard. I dont lie well and under pressure I generally crack. Thought I've told more people about surgery there are a number of people, my extended family, that I have chosen not to tell and dont plan on ever telling. My extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, are not always the most understanding people in the world. Prior to surgery I lost right around 30 pounds. I am not quite at the one month mark yet from surgery but as of June 16th I weigh 255.5. Which means since March 1st I have lost 54.5 pounds. I don't know how this compares to everyone else's progress but I think it's pretty good. The biggest thing since surgery that has been a struggle is seeing how little I am eating and feeling mentally as though I am wasting away. It's hard to see yourself after so many years eat so little food. I have had a lot of nausea since surgery which hasn't helped one bit either. I am currently still on medication to get rid of the nausea but am finding each day that goes by it seems to get better and better. I have my one month mark check up this coming Thursday the 23rd. I am interested to see what the doctors have to say about my progress and am interested to see what I will weigh in at. I will try and update this when I can. I apologize if I rambled I just needed to put it all in writing and get it out of my head.

I'm thankful I am almost 100lbs down from my highest weight back in Aug 2019. From now on, I'm taking all pics like this!!!

My journey is not just about weight loss, but it has been finding out who I can be now that my mobility is restored...I have seen myself transformed, not so much in how I look, but in how I feel inside to the out...I will keep you updated more later, but I did want to say hello to all my fellow "sleevers".. .God Bless

Hi Everyone, I've been reading threads for the last month not really believing my insurance would approve me for surgery. I just snuck by with a bmi of 35. Anyway, I am so excited to be approved and get started on my weight loss journey. For those of you out there that think there's no way your insurance will approve you, you may be wrong. It doesn't hurt to try. I also think it helps to have a surgery staff pulling for you which I think Dr. R. Pinnars office did.

Jim- My wife I and I went through last November/December what you guys are now. I was banded on 1/31 and my wife 2/22. We are both doing great. She's lost 22 lbs and I've lost 38 lbs. While we know we won't continue to lose at this rate we know it's for our best interest to lose the weight. Do your research and talk about it with your wife. There are some sacrifices (food choices and eating habits), but if you work at it the rewards are there. The weight loss is going to help with the problems that you said you and your wife have. Good Luck! Bruce

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts - lots to think about! I particularly take on board the points made about the band being a tool to assist in training oneself to eat normally, rather than being a 'quick fix' solution, which is what I've been worried I was looking for, again. I suppose one of my issues is that, having battled with over eating for more than 20 years, I have trouble believing that I could ever be capable of being a normal eater and therefore achieve a healthy weight (or, perhaps, deserve to) but it is inspiring to read of other people's success on this site. I appreciate the time you've taken to share your experiences. Best wishes, Randi

Hello everyone, I’ve been considering gastric banding for sometime (I currently weigh 234lbs and my BMI is 38), however, I haven’t taken this any further than carrying out research on the internet. Although, thanks to my participation in a self-help group, my weight has been stable for the last three years and I have been abstaining from my old ‘binge’ foods of cakes, chocolate, sweets etc for a similar length of time but, while this is a vast improvement, I just can’t seem to under-eat (which let’s face it is what you have to do) sufficiently in order to lose weight. My self-help group friends are very ‘anti’ any sort of surgical options, however, I really feel that it is the only answer – I am sick and tired of living (or rather not living) my life like this. My big concern, apart from the surgery itself, is whether I would be able to follow a restricted / reduced diet following surgery – I can’t help thinking that if I were able to do that I wouldn’t be obese in the first place! Therefore, I’d be interested to know how those of you who have had surgery dealt with this. Many thanks to you all for your assistance, Randi

Great job Indigogirl!!!!! I am very impressed with all you have said as I am having my surgery next Friday and my starting weight and bmi is the same as yours. I also am impressed that you are 20 lbs. under your goal!!! way to go!!!!! I to love the spicey foods and travel to California often. What a great place it must be to live! Take care and keep up the good work, and thanks so much for the motivation!:laugh: