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I understand where you are coming from. My husband and i have been married for 20 1/2 years. He has been with me thru everything. When we got together i was a size 0-3.... over the years i ballooned up to a size 18. Never has he said anything to me about my weight, but it did effect our marriage. For the past few years before LB... we maybe had sex 2-3 times a year... yes you heard me right... a year. This was not all his fault, i could not stand my self and it did effect everything. He is 6'4" and is NOW in great shape, but he went thru a "fat" stage also. Thru the years i wondered if we would make it. Well we hung in and things are getting better. My confidence has gone up and the new found "sex-life" is amazing. We do still have our issues. I getting use to the attention that i use to get from men that disappeared for years... again. Oh, we still fuss and argue all the time.... but it is what it is. Everyone goes thru tuff times no matter if you had WLS or not............... im going to share something with you that has gotten me thru the years of doubt. My grandma told me this ....... you know what you have.., but you never know what you'll get. Every man has issues, don't trade one for the other. Ask yourself these questions: Does he hit me, do drugs, alcoholism, verbally abusive?...... If you answer no to all these, then stay put... Last year he and i took a weekend away, just the two of us and rekindled our relationship...... if you can, try this.. it might help. Best of luck to you....... and you need not apologize for awkward.... opinion are like a$$ holes.... everyone has one.

I got a couple of free samples of Quest bars in the mail and I really liked them. They're low carb, 20g of Protein, no sugar or sugar alcohols, and around 170-210 calories each. http://www.questproteinbar.com/ They did keep me satisfied for a long time.

I asked my surgeon about this one, because I like to have a drink every once in a while. He said " you have to live " I agree. He also said it is "not good to drink empty calories. So one my eighth day out of surgery, I had 1/4 of a skinny margarita!! It was so good and well deserved. I was a little afraid to drink the entire thing. Then I had a Bloody Mary, 125 calories plus I am getting V8 which as plenty of nutrients. It was so good I then got a second virgin (V8). My burps were not pleasant, but I didn't feel as guilty for consuming alcohol. Did I feel tipsy? After the 1/4 of margarita and bloody mary that was in a small plastic cup.. I felt like I drank the equivalent to 3-4 beers.. So live life. Be aware. Have Fun.

I'm loving the Skinny Girl Margaritas. I buy the one by Bethenny Frankel but I ordered one at TGIF and they had berries muddled in the glass so that's what I do. I muddle some blackberries or a couple of strawberries in a glass and a little bit of Splenda with ice and it's good. I also like the vodka with one of my diet Snapple Iced teas. I have not had any carbonated drinks since my surgery and I will continue to stay away from that. I'm so glad to be out of my Diet Coke habit. Honestly though I need to stay away from alcohol altogether . I find that it stalls my losses and if I was not having the drinks on the weekend I'm sure I would have lost more by now. I'm like the poster up thread I can go for weeks without having a drink and then I see someone on Tv with a nice frosty looking cocktail and then I have one and continue that for a while until I decide to stop so I'm gonna stop now.

Sorry - I didn't see this post. I was gone for the weekend and it was really busy out on this site! You may not have had a lot of answers, simply because there are so many opinions. Some doctors and nuts say, just to get in your Protein & let the rest take care of itself. Other's have very strict rules about calories, carbs, types of protein, etc. some say a carb is a carb ... others swear you can subtract the Fiber and sugar alcohols ... others say complex carbs are ok, but not simple. What is your doctor's plan? How are you doing with it? Maybe we can make some suggestions based on what you are doing & the results you are looking for. Sorry ... I know that isn't much help. But, it seems like there are as many plans as there are individuals. Everyone seems to be a bit different on what works for them.

Well Hello everyone, we are fast coming up on our 1 year surgiversary and I came in to check to see how everyone is doing. As for myself I'm glad to see that I'm not alone. My weight loss is very slow and I have been at a weight plateau for about 3 months now. Like a lot of you though my inches seem to be going down and I am back into a lot of my dresses that I was wearing the last time I lost a good amount of weight BL (before lapband) . I had an appt last friday to get another fill. I think that would have been my 4th or 5th not sure but I cancelled it because when I went for a fill at the beginning of June I had not lost anything and my Dr accused me of eating cake and ice cream (slider foods) I was a little miffed because I'm not a sweet eater at all. Why do people including these weight loss surgery Dr's think that if your overweight you must be sitting on the couch eating Bon-Bons with empty ice cream containers around you? I'm at a point where I can't eat much at all but I do eat the wrong things sometimes like I will eat fried shrimp. I can only eat about 3 or 4 at a time but it would be better to have the shrimp grilled or steamed and I eat late sometimes and I'm not shy about having a drink now and again and I know for a fact that alcohol stalls my losses and bloats me. So I take responsibility for my slow loss. I plan to make an appt to get my next fill just before my 1 year surgiversary which will be on 8/16. Hoping that I can bite the bullet now and at least lose another 10 lbs before then bringing me to my halfway point. I'm disappointed because I wanted to be like those star WLS peeps that lose 100lbs in a year but I guess I will be like what the lap band research says that will lose 1/2 their excess weight the first year. Wishing everyone continued success.

Decamom, per the Atkins diet website, fiber should be subtracted from the overall carb as this is a good carbs and can be broken down into good energy not just sugar energy. You can also subtract sugar alcohol as these are good carbs as well. At least that is what I learned from the Atkins website. I have trouble keeping my carbs below 30 grams daily - it is a hard battle but one worthy of conquering. Good Luck to us all.

I have the same symptoms. I have been diagnosed with severe Gerd and was prescribed Dexilant. Try to stay away from acidic foods, caffeine, fried foods, alcoholic beverages, fruit juices, soda and hot peppers. Also, try not to eat after 8pm.

Hi everybody! I had a question - it may be silly, but I was just wondering... My surgery is on Monday, and two days ago I had 2 glasses of wine. I didn't even think about the fact that alcohol is a blood thinner. Is there a possibility that this could adversely affect my surgery?? I'm having nightmare visions of me bleeding out on the table or something. HELP!

I am not a drinker but have have a few special nights coming up. These are the only types of alcohol i enjoy. Does anyone else drink these? I know we are not supposed to drink bubbles after but......

Man, I am worried about this too. I tend to drink a LOT of ice Water or ice tea with my food, especially when eating out. Right now it's not a problem, because I'm still having so many liquid meals, but after I'm on to normal food I'm going to have to be really careful about the whole 1/2-hour before or after thing. Also, this thread is both funnier and sorta sad if you assume we're talking about alcohol. "I JUST CAN'T STOP DRINKING. "

I should have started this earlier. I have a lot to say! My surgery was performed by Jose Rodriguez through Belite, in Tiajuana. It was really a bizzarre adventure, crossing the border, language barrier, not so state of the art facilities. I was checked into an ok hotel. Taken later for EKG and bloodwork, not at a hospital, but a one floor infimary staffed with nurses. The 'Belite team' was not based there, they traveled back and forth to Juarez.. Anyhow, I won't go into much more detail, surgery was normal, everything worked out fine. I would do it all over again and even after telling the whole story, my best friend is scheduled for July 16. The first few days my incisions were painful enough that I leaned on the pain releivers they provided... toridol I believe. Non narcotic. I was able to tolerate all the clear liquids I tried, water, soup broth, juice, my favorite thing was Passion tea from Starbucks. I was able to eat (after chewing a long while) gummy vitamins and swallow pills with a little dragging feeling but not much pain. Getting up and moving always seemed to be the best medicine. SO I'll skip through to now, about 3 weeks later. I'll start with the biggest pay-off of course, I have lost 30 pounds since my starting weight of 236. I lost 10 pounds pre-op and 20 more since. I m losing about a pound a day. I honestly can't really tell, but other people have noticed. I'm still squeezing into my pants. My struggles change daily. I sip water all day but it never seems to be enough. I am working on getting at least one protein shake in daily. I stop by the fridge and take a sip whenever I think of it. I am starting to incorporate the soft foods that have been recommended. So far I have tolerated pretty well about a half of a scrambled egg, cottage cheese, small amounts of yogurt, noodles are great... not very nutritious. I went out for sushi. Toro was fantastic though I ate too much. I think the thing that pushed me over the edge was drinking a little plum wine. Speaking of alcohol... I used to love vodka. I really still do but it hurts to drink it and makes me feel like crap. It 's a funny thing, all of the things I turned to for comfort have disappeared. Thank God for anti-depressants! Some mornings it takes me an hour or so to work through some kind of morning sickness I've developed. I took some advice from a member of having some juice before I get out of bed and that seems to help a bit. I am thinking of switching from Prevacid to something else. I have only thrown up twice, once when I took a pill and it stuck in my throat, and another time when I ate cottage cheese too fast. It is getting better every day, though I am always worried about nutrition. I am figuring things out... sometimes the hard way which is just really being over full. I'll be much more excite when I am under 200 and can slide into some 14's!

Hi there! I'm right there with you. . .I had my surgery on Dec 29, 2009 and have lost an incredible 150 lbs . . . however since January 2011 it slowed down and came to a screeching halt. . . I've teeter between 200 - 210 lbs all the time. . . i have found what my problem is has been night eating. . . ugh that was my big problem before surgery too. . . so i've tried to decrease that bad habit. . .as with sodas, i drink diet, but limit them to 2 a day. . . instead of potatoe chips I eat pork rinds, instead of chocolate at night i eat those whipped chocolate mousse yogurt things (only 1 though) and/or some yummy fruit. . . and of course TONS of Water splashed with lime juice and lots of ice. . . for my alcoholic beverages, I use a little diet soda, splash of lime juice and rum and limit it to Friday and Saturday only. . . never beer or malt beverages. it's the little changes that could help. . . i haven't lost any weight by doing this but I haven't gained either and to me that is the most important. . . you could throw in extra exercise as well to help boost your metabolism a bit. . . good luck, i hope this helps you. . . some folks will think this is totally dumb, but it works for me. . .

3 - 6 months to start enjoying alcohol again? My surgery is August 11 so, I'll be just in time for Mardi Gras!

I would have to disagree with you on the food addiction aspect. I think that while one cannot literally be addicted to food since it is necessary to live, I guess a better way of wording it is that people are emotionally addicted to eating bad foods. It's not an actual addiction like you would think of a drug addiction or alcohol, but it's that need to eat bad food and comfort oneself with those comfort foods. The medical dictionary's definition for addiction is "a persistent, compulsive dependence on a behavior or substance." That pretty much sums up the eating habits of a lot of us here. It's an emotional connection and to me, that's the tricky part about this "addiction". You HAVE to eat food to live. If someone is addicted to heroine, they don't need it to live. They may get withdrawals when they stop taking it, but it's not a necessity of life. They can stop taking it forever and survive. Those of us who are addicted to food can't just stop eating food the rest of our lives. We have to still eat but we have to make better choices. It's like telling an alcoholic "Okay, so you can drink, you're just going to have to make better choices." Well that's really hard! I feel the same way about a food addiction. In a perfect world, we would be able to say "Okay, I have a problem here, I am just going to stop eating forever." But we can't. I think that's why the sleeve is such a perfect option. It helps us to make those better options and to really keep control of our portions. Going back to the alcoholics thing, it's like we have our AA Sponsor with us 24/7

I have the same feelings. I know I did his to myself. But I also know that I got a double whammy with addictive personality traits from both sides of my family. I just turned to food instead of alcohol. I am at the point you were at when you posted this. I am preop. I need to drop 28 more pounds before they will schedule my surgery, And they are not counting the 15 pounds that I lost between my letter of medical necessity and my first appointment from them, but my insurance company will. Sometimes it drives me nuts. I have my psyche eval scheduled and I am awaiting to hear when my preop tests are scheduled.

There are certain party favors that you shouldn't mix with alcohol. Maybe that, coupled with dehydration, was the culprit.

OK... this was me 2 Fridays ago, and the Friday before that too... ( so 2 Fridays in a row!!!) Here's the email i sent to my doc: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Last week on Friday, I full on fainted.. I was dancing and felt really dizzy, so, i drank a couple of glasses of ice Water, and some cider, then the room started spinning and i sat down.. tried to stand up and the room spun more and my legs felt wobbly.. sat down again and woke up on the floor with people grabbing me... I blacked out completely because I don't remember anything.. Tonight... same thing.. not as severe.. no spinning just weak legs, then woozy and sat down.. put my head between my knees .. and bam.. woke up on the floor again.... Any idea about what is wrong with me?? Once is not really a big deal but 2 times in 8 days... I'm starting to worry a bit.... HELP!! fyi... good sodium intake and even made a point today to ask the bartender to add sugar to my cranberry/cider (non-alcoholic) cocktail...and drank lots of water... >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> So, on both of those days, my hydration was great, but my calorie count was really low.... i would say that it is low blood-sugar... My doctor responded that it is not a big deal, and actually quite normal... 2 reasons... malnutrition and rapid weight loss.. My GP did a full blood scan and it was normal... he thought malnutrition too and recommended I eat a tiny bit of anything every 2 hours... Have done that for the last week and a half and feel so much better!!! In addition i would say it was also because i had been dancing a LOT, the club was bloody hot, and quite packed... Sound familiar?? So, my solution: stay hydrated... one drink maximum and keep some beef Jerky in my bag to snack on... it has REALLY helped... I went dancing the next day, did this, and i was fine... of course my friends are still kinda freaking out, so they make me take a break from dancing to eat.... if you are like me you don't want to eat past lunchtime on days you will go out, but that doesn't work cuz 12 hours without food, plus a LOT of freaking exercise dancing (1 hour at my weight burns 1000 calories)... equals the room spinning and passing out in front of my friends (and the very cute bartender who is never going to ask me out now that i have fainted in front of him TWICE... bloody hell!) What do you think???

Redbull is carbonated as well. I personally have issues with carbonation, occasionally and I mean very occasionally can I handle a sip. It puts an extreme amount of pressure in my stomach and makes me honestly feel stuck. I loved a Red Stripe or Bud Ice before the band. It has been a year and a half now and I have yet to finish one whole beer. I am not a wine drinker unless they are sweeter and although carbonated, they are bit less than beers. I also let mine sit for a while, it bothers me less--warm. I will also drink, gin or vodka mixed with cranberry or OJ or whiskey/amaretto/ midori sours. Ever since banding, alcohol is harder for me to consume for some reason..good thing I am not missing out. Before I could handle at least a few with friends......I have not been drunk or barely tipsy since banding, so one drink can make me fuzzy or not.

alcohol will do the trick!

Try rubbing alcohol.

thanks! this is exactly what i wanted to know, what to drink and how alcohol effects u after.

Well hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the weekend with my three beautiful grandchildren and daughter. It was so great to have the energy to keep up with a 5, 7 and 12 year old. We spent the days in the pool and evenings playing in the yard. We had a cook out on the 4th and than went DT to watch the fireworks and get our faces painted. I don't think I could have asked for a better holiday weekend. Oh and I lost 2 lbs. Even with company here I managed to stay true to my new eating behaviors. I decided to cook what I could eat and daily went out and bought snacks for the kids so they were not sitting around the house. My husband did bring chips into the house for the kids on the 4th and I must say they have always been my weakness and still are and when they left on Tuesday I sent them packing out the door. I really can't trust myself because I knew I would eat them and why have the temptation so close at hand. I also sent all the mini cheese cakes and potato salad. My daughter brought her Pilate's bands and taught me some new strengthening exercise so I could do some more toning at home on my legs and arms. I know I will probably not be able to tighten up all the shrinkles but every little bit helps. I have managed to make it to Curves 4 days a week since starting but still have not got my exercise heart rate up to the 70% they want me to, but I can tell a difference in my energy level. Tonight I got on the WII to weigh myself and was surprised to have lost 2 lbs in the last 9 days. I have been trying hard to stick to 3 meals a day, writing down everything I eat and trying to not do the shakes and bars and eat real food for all my meals. Believe me making myself eat solids for all meals is hard, and requires a lot more planning. I got all of my labs back several weeks ago and my HDL was not high enough and my LDL was too high. So increase the exercise, increase the fiber(and this is very hard). When I got on the scales tonight I am not sure what I would have done if I would have stayed the same. I read and read and everything I read says I have lost above average but when you do everything right you want a reward and my reward has been that number dropping. Sometimes I feel I become fixated with the numbers and so need to refocus myself on the fact that this is a journey and everyday that I make a positive change in my life it is a change in the right direction. I think I have finally realized that the next 30-40lbs is going to be slow and steady. I am not the most patient person, and I really thrive on instant gratification, who of us doesn't? I spend time ever evening reading the blogs because it helps me stay focused, I read the success and the struggles.(I don't like to call them failures because I believe we are all trying to be successful and some do it quicker than others. I try not to compare myself with others because all of our bodies respond differently. Learning from others like us is our key to our success. I had a friend at work who had the band several months ago and she was struggling with getting to her sweet spot and was struggling with not losing. She told me that she had to distance herself from me because it made her feel bad that she was not losing and I was. But she said what helped her most was staying in therapy with the psychologist and getting her head straight. I think sometimes that is something we all struggle with, we had the surgery, we try hard to eat right but we struggle with demons off and on whether we admit it or not. I went to one of the support group sessions a couple of weeks ago and it was sort of a b***h session for a lot. I heard a lot of people blaming the physician and the navigator for them not knowing or understanding something. I sat there and listened and finally thought, how can we hold others to blame for our inability to lose weight. My doctor made it very clear to me, no guarantees, this was a tool and only a tool and the work was up to me. Let's face it I am really good at lying to myself and talking myself into believing that just one bite won't hurt. ( Just like the fish sandwich and biggie Fry's I used to eat on the way home from work as my first dinner, it didn't count because me and the server were the only witness to my act) I work daily on holding myself accountable, it is my responsibility to listen to my body and inform my doctor if something isn't working but first it is my responsibility to follow the rules. (NONE of this is easy, if it was easy I could have done it without the help of lap band, RIGHT!) When I got my lab work back, I was disappointed. I thought, I make healthy food choices what else do they want? The nutritionist said, add more fiber and vegetables. I said how in the H%$# am I suppose to do that when I can only eat so much at a meal and I need to focus on protein. She said, eat legumes, oatmeal, nuts, flaxseed. Oh, I said legumes are protein, duhhhh! And EXERCISE, oh that dreaded word. How many of us thought all we had to do was have the surgery and the band would do all the work. How did that work out for everyone, not that good huh! I think I said this in another blog but I had always thought weight loss surgery was a cop out but boy have I changed my mind. This has been one of the most life changing things that I have ever done. For me my lap band forces me to make healthy choices. I am not just paying a fee to WW to get weighed weekly, I altered my body, I had surgery, I put a limit on my choices of what to eat and eating now requires a lot of thought and planning. So lap band bloggers, yes losing weight is what we all hope to achieve but should that be our only focus? Maybe our focus should be on dealing with changing all the learned bad behaviors we have developed over the years and lap band surgery alone will not change those behaviors or those feelings. I constantly find myself checking in with myself because it is so easy to lose one bad behavior and pick up a new one. It is so hard to hold yourself accountable, so hard not to convince yourself to take just one bite, so hard not to slide back to bad habits with just ONE bite! I don't know how to cope unless I just cut them out of my life. But that seems so final and cold. Should we deprive ourselves of the things we love, until I learn control, for me that will be a yes and maybe will always be a yes. Does an alcoholic ever stop being an alcoholic, NO. Does a drug addict every find a time when they can have just one fix, NO. Will I ever be able to be alone in a room with a bag or bowl of chips. I doubt it! My journey will be full of peaks and valleys. I will have successes and I will have back slides. I will work daily to hold myself accountable for my actions and to be honest with myself. Because honestly I am the only person I ever lied to, everyone else could see what I had done to myself and now you know too.

I have noticed a lot of restaurants have a "light" menu for alcohol now. They can make a lighter version of martinis and margaritas. I know juice isn't the best option, but it has not carbonation. I second a vodka and cran. sugar free redbull and vodka? I think just asking the bartender what they can make that is low cal and no carbonation should give you a few selections. If they are true bartenders that is.

I am in maintenance mode so I do allow alcohol in my diet. Sometimes beer gives me the hiccups. Usually on the first sip, if it is going to happen. I hate it because it makes me look drunk, even if I am not! ugh! The main thing to realize is that it is extra calories that provide no nutrition. You need to take that into account. I'd say try a sip or two and see how it goes. The only other alcoholic drinks i like are strawberry margaritas/daquiris and long island iced teas. Both with tons of calories. Alcohol does not affect us differently the way it does bypassers, because our digestive systems are still intact. But if you haven't consumed as much as you might have in the past, your tolerance may be lower. Just something to keep in mind. I say enjoy yourself!