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This doesn't even make sense to me. If one shot + 30 seconds didn't get you drink before the band, it shouldn't get you drunk after. Nothing about the absorption of our anatomy has changed. The alcohol still hits everything it hit before, still has to go through everything it went through, etc. The shot rule is often true for people with malabsorptive procedures (e.g. RNY), who are often told they will be able to tolerate a thimble of alcohol at most (because their absorption is all outta whack). But for us, especially with liquids, it should be as though nothing is changed at all. I can tell you that the shot + 30 seconds isn't a rule, absolutely not, because it doesn't apply to me. I've never been drunk before or after band (I've drank, just never get drunk) but I've had shots. And I've had large/strong drinks. So it would stand to reason that if it changed because of the band, it would have changed with me, but is has not. (BTW, not arguing, just trying to make sense of this. I think it might be one of the BS things our surgeons tell us to help their numbers and promote better choices... kind of like the diet that we don't need to be on because of our bands, but it helps us lose weight quicker... alcohol is going to be comparable to a milkshake in that regard).

My nurse told me that alcohol would have a stronger affect. (Funny, since half a glass of wine puts me to sleep!) Maybe what Wheetsin said is right--it's a bigger deal because you won't ever have a lot in your stomach to absorb the alcohol and slow its release into the bloodstream?

newgrandmother.... I coach people here in Tampa Bay and when you do the right things you can stay full and lose it safely. SugarFree is not the way to go. Sugar free just puts other crap in the food to make it taste good. - After reading the above there are lots of tips and tricks that you will use post surgery so might as well start them now. MYFITNESSPAL.com - absolutely the most important tool for staying accountable to yourself. choosetochange.org is my website and blog. Follow the blog I have lots of recipes that will work to help you eat cleaner. When I put people on a detox it is a way to clean their system and remove the cravings that we all have. Figure out your vice and start there first. COLD TURKEY... Get through the first week and you will be golden. DETOX - Eliminate Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Sugar, Alcohol and all Vinegar and Oil based products. (Exceptions are Cold Pressed Olive oil, Coconut Oil and Sunflower Oil) Find a Pea Protein (It is natural as long as it is certified Organic; message me for suggestions) Change your milk to unsweetened almond milk (perfect for gluten free oatmeal, baking and protein shakes) All of the categories above are natural allergens and your digestive system stores the excess until you clean yourself out. The average American holds 20-40lbs in their digestive track of undigested bi-products. Get yourself a colon cleans product for week 2. Make sure you are drinking 4-6 20oz bottles of water a day.... Vitamin Water Zero is the only flavored water that doesn't contain artificial sweetners. It is detox approved. This DETOX takes some getting used to, but you will lose 10 lbs in your first week if you don't cheat on yourself. I would be happy to help you out and coach you through the month and beyond if you want. I have a facebook, skype and blog dedicated to helping non-ops and ops lose weight and eat cleaner!

im 3 months banded and i can eat EVERYTHING, just slowly and chew well. since ive been banded ive had pizza, steak, pork chops etc. while i dont care for 99 % of alcohol, tonight im having a strawberry margarita in celebration of losing my 1st 25 lbs ! (Woo hoo! i hit 200 today !) so remember, you are in the early STAGE of being banded," and this too shall pass." good luck !

Hi All, I rarely come on the forums anymore. It seems that, once I got past the really tough times with my band to sleeve revision I just drifted away. Anyway, I realized that I will be 2 years post-revision in a couple of weeks and I should probably report in and let the newbies know about my experience. If you want to know specifics about my surgery, you can look through my profile posts - it is hard for me to remember all the details now. I had a lap band for 4 years and it sucked. I got my lap band at 215 pounds and ended up at about 195 pounds and was gaining slowly on top of that. I couldn't eat chicken (did I mention the band SUCKED?). I wanted the band out, but I was afraid I would baloon up higher than ever. For me, the sleeve was an insurance policy. I did not expect it to work because I had already been through weight loss surgery that did not work. Why would I expect anything different the second time around? I was 100% afraid to dream that it might be successful. And, of course, I was wrong The sleeve was everything the band promised and more. On surgery day I was somewhere between 195 and 200. I went to Dr Aceves and would recommend him without hesitation. Band out and sleeve in, took less than 90 minutes. No complications. Good pain management. That's when the tough stuff really started. I couldn't drink the Protein drinks because I couldn't handle the smell or taste. Because of this I barely ate or drank anything for weeks. Everything tasted so weird / bad. I was significantly fatigued for 3 months because could barely get any food in. I chewed my Vitamins and took my omeprazole like a good girl. The apex of my weight loss occured after about 9 months. I got down to about 127 pounds. Mind you, at no time was I ever "trying" to lose weight. In fact, I was "trying" to get enough quality calories in my body. Since I ate so little, I couldn't mess around with junk food - I only ate food with good nutritional value. I also found that Certain foods were just harder to eat. I craved chicken, but I had a hard time eating carrots (they stick!). I would say I didn't feel completely normal until about a year had passed. At this point I have levelled out in the 135-140 range and I am thrilled about it. It is easy for me to get down to 135 (and lower if I wanted to) by just cutting out one snack a day or quitting drinking alcohol altogether. I weigh myself maybe once a month and if I see myself creep towards 138-139, I start cutting out a couple of things and get back to my comfort zone. It has been hard in the last 6 months because my father committed suicide leaving me with a contentious legal battle with his wife. I started drinking a couple of drinks every day because of the stress. That has kept me in the upper end of my range, but it is still easy to maintain. I find as time goes by, I stopped drinking every day and only a couple of times a week - it made me less puffy :-) So, my lifestyle now: I don't exercise. Yes, I know - that's bad. I do have tons more energy and I walk more in my daily life than I ever did before, but I do not engage in regular exercise. I try. I do my best. I'm just being honest. I still have a hard time getting even 30 ounces of Fluid every day. The taste of Water changed for me the day I had surgery and I have had a terrible time replacing it. Sometimes I have fizzy water. Strangely, beer goes down very easily. I developed a Starbucks mocha habit after the first year, but I limit it to one a day and get nonfat most of the time. I also started drinking iced coffee. I eat 5-6 times a day (I limit it to 5 if I am actively trying to manage my weight). I eat protein and veggies. I just started liking sandwiches again, but find bread and rice both expand in my stomach and make me very uncomfortable after I eat them. Even now, I eat too fast sometimes and can be in terrible pain from fullness. I still can't drink after I eat. I drink as much as possible up to the point where I put food in my mouth and then no liquids for an hour or more - PAINFUL!! I could never have done this without the sleeve. I am completely happy with the result. My life isn't "normal" because I still have to think about carrying Snacks with me so I can have good choices while I am out of the house. I still have to eat slowly. I still have people in restaurants badgering me about why I didn't finish my food. The difference is that I wear size 8 jeans and size 4/6 dress. I can walk / run around Disneyland for 10 hours with my daughter without major breaks to sit down. I rode a bike with my kid just this week and it was awesome. I finally feel like I fit in with my world. The outside reflects the inside. I feel much happier now, also, because people are used to me being this size now. Before people were always making a big deal out of the wieght loss. I don't like talking about it. I hated the attention during the loss because I was very guarded about the surgery. Now I have been the same for a year and a half or so, people don't comment about it as much and I love it. My future: well, the biggest surprise for me is that my husband and I are thinking about having another baby. My daughter is 8 and I had my tubes tied 6 years ago. I scheduled my tubal reversal with a specialist in Beverly Hills at the end of March. I will be 39 in a couple of weeks, but the doc says my FSH level is that of a 25 year old and my husbands sperm count and motility is off the charts! I used to be super-fertile before my tubal (just look at me sideways, and I was knocked up!) so we will see if that is still the case in a couple of months. Also, I finally finished my Bachelors degree 21 years after I started :-) I graduate in June. My life rocks! I was already lucky to have a good man, a great child, good job, and overall good health. The sleeve and weight loss are the icing on the cake for me. I'm a lucky lady. With gratitude, Lara

As some of you know I'm 47 and divorced, will soon be 2 years this month. Let me start how my weight gain all started for me, I wasn't an obese child nor a teen. I married my high school sweetheart in 1986 and boy did I think I knew the world, if I knew then what I know now, ha. He was shy and I was the outgoing one, he was super skinny and I was average. He ate and ate and ate and I thought I could eat along with him so my weight kept creeping up over the years of our marriage little by little. By 1990 I weighed 199, said to myself I'd never let myself weigh over 200, I ate crow alright. We were unable to have children so we occupied ourselves in the life of luxury of world travels and cars and later in life our dream home in '06. By that time he had a corporate job, I had not worked in years and we had our dream home with a pool. It was all I could do to keep house it was so huge but I loved it. Guess you could say starting in '06 I could see a change in him and I began to stress eat more. His job was very stressful, afterall he managed a factory, oh how proud of him I was but then the alcohol began and then my food addiction began. From 2006 until he left me Oct '09 I literally watched him become a full blown alcoholic and my eating had well, let's just say I gained about 25 lbs. He began staying out late till the wee hrs of the night/morning in bars, coming home drunk, it was horrible. Then on that fateful afternoon in Oct. '09 he came home and said he was leaving me, I was devastated to say the least. I had no idea he wasn't happy. Yes we had our ups/downs like anyone else but I guess he had gotten tired of looking at a fat wife, I had let myself go, certainly not the girl he married. I stayed in the marital home a few months until I couldn't care for the acreage and pool and he made me move out and he move back in. At this time he had asked for a divorce and I was at my all time low, a deep depression. I guess I have to admit I was on the verge of suicide but I'm deeply religious and knew better and had it not been for my faith in God and my mom and of course my Psychiatrist I never would have made it out of the dark hole. My mom stepped in and bought me a home close to her and I rented it from her. Guess she wanted to give me my independence for the first time in my life. By this time it was May of 2010, divorce proceedings were ongoing, I was living alone and eating and eating. BIG mistake. I had no accountability, I was sitting alone in a house with a dog and a tv and eating whenever and whatever I wanted. I literally was eating myself to death. I knew I didn't want to die an early age like my dad but yet I still kept eating. I had ballooned to 294, I was huge, could hardly walk, couldn't breathe. In early June '12 I moved in with my mom for financial reasons and she sold the house, talk about humbling, having to move back in with a parent at age 47. One afternoon I asked my mom to go with me to a seminar for lap band surgery, this was April 2012. What a revelation. Yes I had done my homework, I had actually gone to a seminar back in '08 but wasn't ready mentally then. This time I was ready. The next day I called my ins, they covered it, called the dr's office made an appt, got right in, from start to finish I was banded in like 4 weeks, his office pushed my ins approval thru really quick. Needless to say this saved my LIFE. Has it been a struggle, yes, I struggle each and every day with head hunger and sweets and sometimes give in, that is why my weight loss is slow but I'm proud of my 68 lbs in 1 year and will never look back. My eating habits have changed, for the better of course, I look at food differently, I taste it now instead of gobbling it down. Had it not been for all of you all on here answering my questions throughout this last year and Jean's book I don't think I could have survived my first year. Thanks to all of you out there you're the best! You guys are family!!! Looking forward to the next 12 months of a happier, healthier new me. Donna

Good to hear that all of you are excited about being banded. I will tell you that I would be banded over and over again if I had known that I would have felt the way I feel. I was banded on January 15, 2007 and have lost a total of 28 lbs since then. I have not had any problems nor has it been a challenge to find things to eat nor energy. I have pretty much stayed on task with the diet or healthy eating habits. I think I have lost so well because, once I saw that I had lost a little weight, I was encouraged to keep myself strict to my doctors orders. I went on tueday for my first fill and I would like to share that experience with you all. They first accessed my port area to determine whether or not my incissions were healing correctly. He had me to place both of my legs together and lift them six inches. This allowed the port to pop/lift in the muscle under the skin. He then swabbed me with alcohol and injected the saline. Now, I will tell you that it feels really weird. It kind of feels like you have butterflies in your stomach.:faint: It was not bad, but when I first saw the needle, I was like (What????). Yeah, I knew there was going to be a needle, but not so large. It did not hurt, but it did feel funny. It was not an immediate restriction, but today I have eaten a smalll cup of apple sauce and am satisfied. Just think, I began this thing weighting 248 lbs and am now 218.5 lbs. All I can do is be excited for everyone else beginning or on this journey. Congratulations to all of you who have made this life saving decision.

They call this first week hell week for a reason. It is hard! But it will be worth it. At the moment you’re suffering withdrawals from your previous diet - sugar, carbs, alcohol & caffeine (if you dropped or reduced that too). It will pass and you will get through it. This whole process is not easy. You will have to work hard to be successful but the benefits are amazing & sooo worth the pain & effort. Good luck.

"During an interview with Good Morning America, Williams explained that falling back into alcohol abuse was "very gradual." "It's the same voice thought that… you're standing at a precipice and you look down, there's a voice and it's a little quiet voice that goes, 'Jump,'" Williams told Diane Sawyer. "The same voice that goes, 'Just one.' … And the idea of just one for someone who has no tolerance for it, that's not the possibility." When asked why he relapsed, Robin answered: "It's [addiction] — not caused by anything, it's just there… It waits. It lays in wait for the time when you think, 'It's fine now, I'm OK.' Then, the next thing you know, it's not OK." Replace "alcohol" with "food". Addiction of any kind is so hard. We just have to go day by day and learn new habits and try not to think of the old.

Hello and Good Luck on your up coming surgery!!! We have a lot in common. Our surgery dates are the same, we read a lot, and of course we have the same fears!!! I asked questions of my psychologist and dietician at Temple, but realize after reading these boards not everyone gets all their questions answered. Regarding pre-op diet. I have followed mine to the "T", the previous post is exactly right about the liver etc. That being said, your mind and body plays tricks on you, so I journal, blog and I play my own version of Survivor. I keep telling my self this is getting my body ready for my "new life". The people I have chosen to tell are supportive, if someone says something negative or says something that sways my motivation "like, how can you only drink shakes?, or how can you only live on bites of food after your surgery?", I explain it to them, but I almost start to feel superior!!!!! I explained this to the psychologist and he said it is normal and that is a tool that would help in my success! I am not going to let people make me feel bad about my choices in life anymore!!!!! I'm done, so I think everyone should surround themselves with a great support system first and foremost and educate themselves and the motivation to succeed will come also! Regarding the post-op. My team has me following a two day clear liquid then two weeks shakes then progression to full, then slowly to healthy eating (I am speeding it up here!!!), it's explained to me simply but when I was stressed out about reading some of the failure rates. If you don't follow the plan EXACTLY, the likely hood of failure greatly increases (that includes, slippage, hernias, increase reflux, ulcerations, pouch expanding, etc). So it is important to learn healthy eating habits with this tool. The first thing they said is to avoid eating and drinking at the same time (your banding will act as a funnel, and flush the food out), drink 1/2 hour prior to and 45 min. after a meal to stay full longer. Eat Protein first, ALWAYS. You will always fill up faster and less bloating. Our neurotransmitters that tell our stomachs that we are full lay at the top of our stomachs so if the band fit in that area food hits those transmitters sends a signal to your brain saying you are full. Of course the trick is getting to the reason of why we have to stuff ourselves! Tips that Temple has gives me to help overcome this are: Like previously posted, chew your food (over chew actually) When we actually chew are food we start sending those signals to the brain that trigger those transmitters telling us that we are starting to get satisifed and in 15 min. we should be full. (that's why it helps to have a small stomach because it takes us longer to eat!!!! pretty cool huh!!! So don't over stuff never ever!!! The no no on eating and drinking together! Keep a food journal, this is a must!!!! I use one on my phone. Myfitnesspal.com It also has a forum great tool!!!! Exercise, we all know why this is important! Small bites, no carbination, preferred no alcohol for at least first 18 mths. No sweet drinks that slide through or ice cream!!! Call MD for anything out of ordinary and keep all appointments. I think these are the important ones that stood out for me, but I know this board can add to this!!!! They are great support. Peace, Joleen

I too am obese with no co-morbidities YET. Well hopefully their won't be any because on on my way to a healthier thinner me. I know can understand where you are all coming from, I used to eat very healthily, or so I thought, now I realise just how MUCH i was eating! Obesity and healthy don't go together, because being obese we are at much higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes etc etc. But being skinny isn't synonymous of being healthy. A lot of skinny people can be alcoholics, drug addicts, so that's not healthy either! But I do agree w Emily Grace, we need to be honest with ourselves to be able to address our problems but as mommyoftwo says, obesity is a complicated and multifaceted disease, cause it is one, and it's not as simple as 1+1=2, that's why obesity is such a big problem! Good luck to all of you in your journey!

ALCOHOL BEWARE INDEED? To have a few enjoyable alcoholic beverages [even daily] is not being addicted to anything. It is an acquired habit just like some have in overeating, smoking, sex? etc. & can be broken with will or just say NO POWER, if required. ALTHOUGH it has been correctly mentioned that alcohol is absorbed more quickly into a sleevers bloodstream, it HAS NOT been pointed out that whether one feels any intoxication or not they will be DUI DWI etc. after drinking much less alcohol than those not sleeved. In other words 2 drinks in an hour & you can easily get busted, become involved in an accident & lose your insurance coverage. Don't learn the hard way, BE VERY CAREFUL & understand this aspect well! As is often stated, we are all different: This is how I handle alcohol @ home or out visiting or dining.... Drink whatever, until time to eat, then stop. Eating slowly straight away, is no problem [volume/size up to about 1.5 to 2 cups]. Eating out, I will often only order a starter [if really small X 2] or Soup or Caesar salad After eating & about about 0.5 hour, I can then handle a small dessert or ice cream etc. More often than not, I don't drink anymore. Your satiation/fullness with food should be quite apparent. Get used to it, as that is when one should leave anything left on their plate! If there is more than needed or way too much, leave it...they will learn. As this satiated feeling diminishes [or when it wears off after about 1-1.5 hours] one could drink more should they wish. Friends don't keep pestering/cajoling me to either eat or drink more, as they did initially.

I have learned a lot from this thread. Like so many of you, I would go to happy hour before my surgery, have three or four drinks and call it a good night. Since my surgery I have tried some things on special occasions and most of them didn't really bother me unless it was carbonated which I knew not to do, but had a sip of beer anyway....yes I am brilliant like that - think I was the same kid that had to touch the hot burner because I couldn't take anyone's word that it would hurt me.... While nothing I have had particularly upset me, the the thing that seems to set best is red wine. I had a half a glass at Christmas with dinner and a half a glass when we celebrated my graduation; and a whole glass when I was out with the girls for bunco this week it didn't bother me at all. I had a glass of champagne at New Year's, but, I poured the glass around 11 and didn't drink it until 12 by that time most of the bubbles were gone and it was just sweet wine. My friend who had bypass surgery told me that she couldn't drink anything at all until she was about a year out after her surgery or she got sick and the slightest bit of alcohol made her drunk. So like so many others have said it all depends on the person.

Fat = lazy slob Drig and alcohol = poor thing probably had a rough life and needs help. Nobody cares why someone is overweight because you're just lazy. Even with studies showing sugar is even more addicting than some drugs. Sent from my SM-G930P using the BariatricPal App

You definitely are right, however, it doesn't make it much easier. I completely understand that we have done this to lose weight and get healthty. I did this to end the cycle of overweight people in my family and start changing the diet in my household. My husband has almost done a 180 since my surgery and is going back to his old habits we've worked so hard to break in the last 6 months. He is also very overweight. It's almost as if he is rebelling against what I'm doing. And while it's difficult to see him do that to himself, it's also difficult for me to see/smell what he is eating. It's like an alcoholic going into a bar who has quit drinking. It's a good thing that they have stopped drinking, but it doesn't take that pain away when they're around other people who drink. The hardest part is an alcoholic can usually distance themselves from alcohol, but we have to be around food for the rest of our life. For some of us, our willpower is still not at 100% and that's something we will struggle with, but conquer! I guess my point is, we don't expect others to not eat around us. That's not what she was getting at, she was just expressing a feeling of what a lot of us are going thru - getting over the emotional tie we have to the food that got us this way. You are right though and made very valid points. Thanks! :ohmy:

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Alcohol is just empty calories.

Hi all, I have spent about a month now researching and doing all the necessary steps to get the lapband. Found out today that I need proof of not being a drug addict or alcoholic. Has anyone else faced that problem, and if so how do I prove something like that. Even my doctors office were confused by that question. I am a nurse and have to have periodic drug checks, do you think that would be sufficient for Tricare? Never done drugs, and have about 4 glasses of wine a month. Would love to hear from someone who went through the same stuff.

Some WLS patients still feel like there is a missing element to their long term weight loss. Healing old psychological wounds can be key. Author of Full From Within, psychologist Dr. Colleen Long, explains just where to start. “ The wound is where the light enters you.” - Rumi When I work with pre and post-op bariatric surgery patients, I consistently go over this idea of being "full from within." Many people question, "what does that mean for me? What does that look like?" My response is that for one to be truly full, we must first clear out the old toxicity, wounds, and hurtful schemas we've picked up throughout the years. How does one get over a hurt? There is not "getting over." You go through it. You have to feel it to heal it. If you have underwent gastric sleeve, bypass, or balloon surgery and still feel like there is a missing piece- it is likely that there are some deeper psychological toxicities that need to be cleared. The first step to doing so is sitting still, sitting with the feelings, and it is in stillness that our heart finally starts to answer the questions our mind has failed to thus far. Yet so many have been taught not to feel. That there must be an easier way- a shortcut. 1 in every 8 Americans is on some form of psychotropic medication. 1 In his book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, science journalist Robert Whitaker states that since 1987, the percentage of the population receiving federal disability payment for mental illness has tripled; among children under the age of 18, the percentage has grown by a factor of 35.1 While Whitaker recognized that in the short-term, these medications help people to feel better, he started to realize that over time- drugs make many patients sicker than they would have been if they had never been medicated. 1 He does not make the argument that all people should stop their meds. He believes in the utility of them, just more sparingly than they are currently utilized. However, throughout my years in the practice of therapy- I have noticed a trend of moving people away from feeling. Crying is actually a symptom in the DSM-V. We have pathologized a human feeling! When psychiatrists and therapists witness a patient tearful too many times in session, their next conclusion is that something must be wrong and they must be medicated. This frustrates me so much as a clinician and as a person who has done her share of work in her own personal therapy. When we are broken, we are broken open. Being broken is a starting point, not a symptom that something has gone awry. It is at the point of our deepest pain and grief that we have the greatest opportunity for growth. I find myself telling patients over and over- “you can’t “get over” it, you must “go through” it.” Yet, so many of us have been indoctrinated to think that if we spend more than a day being sad, we must have depression, or if we feel nervous a little bit longer than we’d like to- we must have an anxiety disorder. We definitely “are Bipolar” if we have a mood swing. We have been taught to not feel the yin, only the yang of our emotions. It’s societally acceptable to talk about how happy your weekend was, or how much fun you had on vacation- but watch the uncomfortable shifting in chairs that takes place when you open up about how you just haven’t felt like yourself lately. In our world of quick fixes, where we can have a conference across the world, over a computer, communicate a message in two seconds via text, or post a picture that all of our family can see instantly- we also want instant relief for our suffering. Yet, suffering is part of the human condition. It is through experiencing our deepest sorrows, we are able to appreciate our greatest joys. But we must first be willing to sit in the muck. "Out of the mud, grows the lotus." -Thich Nhat Hanh Part and parcel of any addiction (food, drugs, alcohol, etc.) is that the addict is particularly uncomfortable with being uncomfortable. However, the cure is right there for the taking. “So what does this look like in real life?” you ask. “How do I open the wound, bring in the light, and clear out the infection that started all of this in the first place?” You start with presence. You start with a still and open heart. You start with a spiritual vulnerability that allows you to be at peace with not knowing what will happen next. You sit broken open and wait for the light to enter over time. The most important piece in all of this is being able to create a consistent forum where you hold the space. This could be a therapist’s office, it could be a weekly walk with a friend, a journal practice, or it could be as simple as a prayer every night. You set the priority to hold the space and to sit in the muck. Maybe it starts with emotions that have no words? Maybe it starts with visceral, physical feelings, that you have to simply sit with for a while? Maybe you are lucky enough to immediately put in words where your wound all started and its just floating around in your thoughts, waiting to be articulated? Perhaps it starts with a behavior you tend to do all of the time that you know comes from a place of pain? Case Study: I had a client who continuously posted on social media sites. She had a constant need to feel recognized and admired. She knew there was something behind it and wanted to get to the bottom of where this was coming from. Session over session, we sat with that need. We talked about what she wanted to get from each of those posts and why she was still “on E,” left with an empty psychological tank. The short story of Narcissus goes that he disdained people who loved him. After Nemesis noticed this he lured him to a pool that cast his own reflection. Narcissus fell in love with this pool, not realizing it was merely an image. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection, he lost his will to live. He stared at this reflection until he died. 59 Growing up, this client never quite got the love and admiration we all need from our parents. When we love something so much and don’t get that back- it is that unrequited love that leaves a narcissistic wound. It doesn’t necessarily always start with parents. It can be a formative romantic relationship, but it usually starts with parents. When we are flying from couch to couch saying “look at me mommy I’m superman!” and our mom says “get off that couch now!” instead of “look at how strong and powerful you are,” we begin forming the wound. Unfortunately, without recognizing this- many people will go throughout their life trying to heal it through other people or other things instead of within themselves. (recall the wizard of oz’s moral of the story). It was up to this client to stop the instinctual need to post and each time she had this inclination to look within for what she needed. Eventually, she developed a muscle for self validation, and the posting behavior stopped. The lesson in this case study is to hopefully help guide you to your wound. If we have a food addiction and feel out of control, you can bet we have a wound. Instead of distracting through bad habits, addictions, unhealthy relationships, or external wants- it is time to finally create a place of presence to start the healing process. Mind Meal: Sit in silence for at least 15 minutes. Visualize in your mind’s eye your heart with a bridge of white light to your head. What does it say? Where is the pain? Where is the wound? How might you start filling yourself up for good? Want to learn more about how to be truly full from within. Check out Dr. Colleen's latest book aimed at helping one focus on why they eat vs. what they eat, and stop the "diet yo-yo" for good. You can also sign up for her free course : Full From Within, here. 1 Retrieved: June 2, 2017 https://www.madinamerica.com/author/rwhitaker/

I prefer Protein bars to help boost my protein intake but the sugar alcohols in them really mess my stomach up. Is there a brand without the sugar alcohols?

What do they use to sweeten them with since there are no sugar alcohols? I'm curious now and I think I'll try them out. Thanks!

@@More than this hi welcome I see your in Canada the pre op testing your facing is pretty much the same as in the USA I had to do all that as well your cash price is good tho compared to here for sure lol I just want to say that a lot of Drs and regular ppl too are against WLS especially those who don't and never had a weight issue some think it's just mind over matter eat less move more etc and that's true to a point but the is an addiction in my opinion no diff than drugs or alcohol when u say to those they use substances just stop well yeah if we're that simple no one would be on drugs or alcoholics or eating too much I'm not suggesting your dr isn't a good dr but Drs are human beings with opinions feelings and judgements etc you must be able to decide for yourself and not be treated as if your a child or like your not allowed to help yourself in the way u see fit these procedures have been around for a long while now yes some have complications but most don't don't put off doing what u feel u must do to help yourself a dr advice is to guide you and be sure u have all the facts which u can do by researching as you obviously are doing and I have to say I do feel as if this dr is trying to scare you out of this based on their disapproval however it's your life your decision and you must live with the effects and limits being overweight not the dr so do what u need to do for your life and do not allow ppl or Drs to back u down its your life you get to run it hey if you can come to the states to get it done try that where ever you live see where the nearest big hospital is and see if they have bariatric programs u can probly email someone at that hospital and ask questions etc I'm about 5.5 months post op sleeve I'm in ny

I had a 3 day interview in Spain (I live in the UK) in the middle of my 2 week pre op diet. As it was basically a 3 day interview, i didn't want to arouse suspicions by not eating the amazing spanish food and the great spanish wines. so i I was allowed to revert back to a normal diet and drink a few glasses if wine. I didn't go overboard and reverted back to the pre op diet as soon as I could. The pre op is to shrink the liver but you can also loose shed loads of weight so I would say if you don't need to drink alcohol during the pre op diet don't. Rather than seeing the pre op diet as a pain I would recommend it as seeing it as a great kick start to your new life

Hah just read the thread. Confused about the bribe for Secret Santa.. bribe so you can get her and buy her alcohol? And if all yer bringing is cottage cheese and blueberries.. I'm bringing my own food LOL!! I'm going to see how far it is to drive from here, I *HATE* flying.. Anyone else thinking of driving from the southern area? Would be nice to have a roadie in the car with me if I decide to drive! Isn't someone in Florida? (EDITED REALLY QUICKLY BEFORE SOMEONE NOTICED MY IDIOCY?!)

Coffee and alcohol , well duh on those 2 but my other without fail, coconut oil. I usually can tell if it is in something even if it's not prominently labeled. Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app