A Re-Vision

 I just read an OH story about a woman's revision journey from Lap Band to VSG.  Why am I posting it here?  There is a LOT to be learned from her experience, especially for those new to the Lap Band.  She doesn't bash or blame the band.  She fully recognizes the fact that she was counting on the band to do something it was not designed to do.  I wonder whether she would have been more successful with the band if she had her "vision" before resorting to a "re-vision".  I hope you read it. We can all benefit from each other's experiences, bad and good:

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/My-Bariatric-Re-Vision.html

Tami

thanks for posting this Tami, it dont matter what weight loss surgery you have.  You the person has to follow the guidelines of eating.

Eating right

Eating smaller portions

drinking water

cutting down on the bad foods that taste so good

and most important that people forget is exercise.  No matter what surgery you get you have to exercise . There is no if's and's or but's on this one !!!

I dont give up all my treats ,  I eat my pizza, I go to Mcdonalds but instead of eating a Big Mac and super size fries .  I eat a Grileld Chicken sandwich without the bread and a handful of fries.  Eating like that once inawhile is not going to make you fat, its not going to put on 5 pounds of weight on you .

It's all about moderation plain and simple.  !!!!

 You are so right!  But the *most* important thing to me, is working on keeping your mind in the right place.  Use the surgery as a catalyst for change, research to learn as much as you can how to be successful, and stay focused on what you want to achieve.  Everybody has to find their own way.

Tami

I love this:  "use the surgery as a catalyst for change".  When you think of all the people that have really good weight loss and maintain it -- they are most always the ones that made major eating and excersise changes. 

It's not just that we eat less of every fried food and sweet imaginable and lie on the couch all day. We should also try to make healthier food choices and move more!

Trixie

Steelerfan, mostly a great post but i just wanted to pick up on one thing.

Some people can't exercise (bad joints etc) but they can still lose. In fact, although I know i should have exercised (there is no reason why I couldn't) , but I never did. I lost all my excess weight in 15 months without regular exercise.

We should exercise! For all sorts fo health reasons in addition to weight loss. But if someone can't, they should not be put off getting surgery.

Kate

You are very right Kate !!! I just never think about it that way because my sister has ceberal palsey and has to walk on crutches and she exercises so I guess I just think about her and why there wouldnt be a reason not to exercise.

It might not be  much on what she can do but she does toning of her arms and legs just sitting in the chair .

But you are right Kate !!!

She exercises more then me and has more disablity problems then me so like I said I just think of her and think people can exercise .  That is my bad not everybody can do that though :o(

I think people go into getting the Lap Band with unreasonable expectations, for god sake it's the LEAST invasive surgery there is.  The band is marketed with ONLY a 55 percent EWL, that should let people fully understand it is up the individual to do MOST of the work UPFRONT, that's the trade off on restrictive surgeries, if people WANT a little more help they should get malabsorption, but many don't want to deal with the consequences of malabsorption.

It does not matter WHICH surgery one chooses, they will eventually have to do eat right and exercise. I think the Sleeve may give people a bigger boost in the beginning just because most of their stomach is removed this IS their window of weight loss and most do great and lose most of their weight fairly quickly. But MANY disappear from the boards (I've known a few that did not lose much at all) and those few that hang around that are 3 years out have started to complain about weight gain. 

I think since the Sleeve is so NEW people are going sway that way just like they did the Lap Band, once the 'party' is over and it matures and you have a whole lot of veteran Sleevers, things may turn a bit different. My sister had a restrictive surgery years ago, this is why I am not "gun ho' over it, yea she lost all her weight, quickly...but it came back and now 20 years later she is back over 300 pounds, restrictive surgeries ALONE do not work long term hell the band is adjustable and when I went without restriction for 1 year - I gained weight quickly this is why I KNOW getting a revision to the Sleeve while my band is still working would be very stupid...but if they invent some type of weight loss surgery such as the Sleeve where there is a guarantee that I will KEEP restriction forever...I will be the FIRST going in for a revision to get my band removed but until then...it's this quirky band of mine.

When I first read this article I was struck by how thoughtful the things she wrote were. Her re-visions are all things that every person who wants to beat obesity needs to come to, no matter what, or risk gaining back. I have been through those stages and expect that I will need to revisit them many times along the way. It is not a once and done process. This woman has "gotten it". That is, she has found the key aspects for her, as they are for me. Sharing her vision and re-vision as honestly as she did was a very generous gift to our communtiy. I hope it strikes a chord with many.

Sue