eating with non-banded people

 Hi All,

today I had a business lunch, and even though I took small bites (most probably not small enough), I felt it getting stuck. I eventually had to go to the bathromm to PB, but unfortunately after 5 minutes I had to go again, and then after 15 minutes again. It was so embarassing, the waitress asked me if there was a problem with my food because around 98% of it was left.
I felt it yesterday getting stuck as well, but that was because my partner is like a hoover over his food and I felt rushed, eventually it went down.
Has everybody had the experience of PBing? Is my band too tight? Do I take too big bites? As I said, especially the business lunch was super embarassing, because..well, it was business and I kept running to the loo!
Thanks for your input,
Evelyn

Let's start with the waitress. If a server asks me if everything was okay, I just say yes, fine, and that I was not as hungry as I thought I was. If anyone else asks about visits to the loo, I will say that I am just getting over a stomach flu and that they will have to excuse my exits.

When I PB, it's usually because I have waited too long to eat, am starving and either don't pay attention to "stop cues" or don't chew well enough (or, okay, sometimes both.) If it happens OFTEN, it would be too tight a band, For me, it's usually bad eating habits.

Actually, if you mention intestinal problems or "lady problems", people (especially men) will leave you alone.

So if I flash em a tampon they'll STFU

Nothing scares men more than cotton, cardboard and string!

Boy do I have a picture for that, but I'm not going to post it here because it would offend the masses.

I have to agree with Bette. When I experience this it is usually poor eating habits. Another thing that happens is that if I am with other people I tend not to be paying as much attention as I should to what I am doing. Frequently I will try to push fluids in the time ahead of the event since it seems to help prepare me. Of course I find myself using the restroom visits for another reason.  Remember "first bite syndrome", too. When I am eating with others it happens more often. If I just wait a bit it will resolve and I can begin eating again.

Hope this helps, Sue

Word of wisdom, when eating out in front of people I always order 'safe" food, like soup, or chicken wings, or some type of appetizer they seem to be more band friendly and less likely to get stuck. I've gotten stuck a few times this year while at work, I made a VERY BAD decision to eat Chinese food during a luncheon and I paid the high price of spending the next 2 hours hovering over the toilet while I was supposed to be in a meeting..

Although I knew I can't eat Chinese food, only a few bites without trouble, I was stubborn and ate it anyway...you will learn what you can't tolerate and what you can, but overall the foods that will send most bansters slimming are...thick bread, rice and dry hard chicken.

If you find yourself chewing your food, taking pea size bites and swallowing and waiting between bites and you still PB...you are too tight.

Edited to Add: I used to chew a few Papaya enzyme tablets (from GNC) before a meal, especailly in public to ease digestion, but I quit using them, I am going to start back with those, since when I use to chew them, I never Pb and food eased down more easily even Chinese food, that's a tip.

OMG, I hated eating with certain people when I had my band. Just the thought of eating with them caused my band to stress out. I soon learned who I could eat with and who I couldn't eat with.

Many Americans quickly vacuum up the food on their plates and before you've eaten more then 4 or 5 bites of your food they are urging you to hurry up so they can leave **** THAT, I'll just stay home and eat. One trick I learned was to order food that I could get " to go " .

I hated it when friends and/or family would constantly question me about all the food that was left on my plate, or if there was something wrong, and my biggest pet peeve was when they would comment on all the money I was wasting. Really !!! are you ******g kidding me...worry about your own damn financial **** and leave me alone.  UGH  Those stupid comments always guaranteed me a tightly shut band.

I always enjoyed eating with my friend Christine because she was a natural born slow eater. Meals with her were always relaxing for me.

Having a Lap Band is much like being a mom.....you give up eating your meals while their still hot.

 Pumpkin, one thing I liked about banded eating in US restaurants.... As soon as you put your knife snd fork down, a server took the plate. So the temptation to start picking again vanished.

Over here, good table etiquette is for no plates to be cleared until every single person has finished and even then, in a good restaurant,  there will be a pause. All about lingering over good food. So for bandsters, you can just keep on stopping and starting again!

But the English way of cutting one piece, eating that and then swallowing completely before cutting the next is good  for us!

Kate