Gastric Banding - Is It The EZ Way Out?

I was responding to a forum posting by someone who was having a hard time. She was wondering out loud if banding surgery was the easy way out. Apparently, that’s what she was hearing from people in her life. I know I have worked very hard to get to where I am today, healthy and at a normal weight.     EASY WAY OUT?  I don't think so. After battling obesity from the time I was 2 years old, the band finally gave me the means to win the battle. Almost 6 years later I am still having little skirmishes although I am maintaining my weight loss. Take last night for example. I made a great dinner- some salad a piece of salmon and some quinoa. I know exactly how much I can eat, but still put too much on my plate. I also knew when I was full, but continued eating past it, and was forced to pay the not so pleasant consequences of a hard stop. Why do I still do that on occasion? I don't know, but every day, with every meal I still need to make the correct choices. And every morning when I wake up I am still amazed that I am no longer fat. Face it- we all have issues with food- I definitely do, and it will continue to be a challenge for me. That's why we are all out here on line supporting each other, learning from each other. I plan to go back to basics today- everything served on a dessert size plate because that's all I can eat! What was I thinking? The point is, I wasn't...mindless eating is what got me to where I needed the band to gain some control and I am not about to let it take over again. So now you have my two cents on Gastric Banding- Is it the Easy Way Out? What do you think?

I do not understand why people put any stock in what some other naysayers rattle on about. I could give one less of a d--- about what people say about lap banding or GB or the DS or anything else we decide to do with our bodies. I for one am happy about the decision I made to have the lap band. I take total responsibility for my body. I am obese and take responsibility, I got the lap band and take responsibility. As long as I am not asking anyone else to take responsibility for what "I" do it is no ones d--- business what I do with my body. I do not ask for comments from anyone. I use my own mind. I come to this site to chat with others who have done the same thing and follow along on their journey that is it. Any others I could care less about. We have business to take care of people, lets get on with it. I will not let negativity keep me in a mental prison. I am out and will stay out!!!

I couldn't agree with you more, Sandi! 

I haven't found anything easy about it....from the years thinking about it, to figuring out life as a post op.
I don't care what other people think....I did what was right for me, and me only.

EASY WAY OUT??? I can say this...I had it easy before but now....OMG what a change. Why do they say that?? You have to change your whole life style...have to change the way you eat...how fast or slow you eat....Its most def not an easy way out. I think they should go thru it themselves before saying that. Wouldn't ya think

I have to be honest and say that, for a long time, I thought bariatric surgery was somehow "cheating." I should be able to do this on my own, darn it! It took me a long time and a lot of soul-searching to accept that I was never going to maintain a healthy weight on my own. I had tried and failed far too many times.

Then a friend of mine (an OR nurse) got a band and told me it was the 2nd-best thing she had ever done. (We're both sober in AA for over 25 years and that will always be number 1!) I decided to investigate further with the knowledge that I could back out of the process at any point until they wheeled me into the OR. I came to understand that getting a band was not cheating but was getting a tool that would help me reach and maintain a healthy weight. The tool was not going to do it all, I had a lot of hard work to do to successfully use that tool. I've explained to friends that the band is kind of like an ax. An ax will not chop down a tree by itself -- it requires a lot of work using the ax to get that tree down. Same thing with the band -- it's just a tool.

Having bariatric surgery of any kind means making a lifetime commitment to changing our entire relationship with food. To me, that hardly sounds like the easy way out!

So not the easy way out. I have worked my butt off more post op than in the last 5 years. I am helping it work for me.

I do have a problem with what people think. But I am trying to get over that. I have never thought of wls as the easy way out. I thought people were lucky to have the opportunity to have it and wanted it myself. I let people's comments get to me but really my family is behind me as are my friends and that is really all that matters to me.

It's hard for me to not react to people who think this is the easy way out. As I've said, I have to work at it every day. I just bring my positive support people closer to me when I feel a negative vibe out there. And fortunately, I have lots of positive support.

Easy way out ?!?!?? When I hear that, I always ask “If I had a heart condition, and needed a pacemaker, you would say I was taking the easy way out?" Folks have to understand we have a disease. And with any disease sometimes surgery is the last resort to cure it. No one in their right mind would risk going under a knife, and possibility dieing, just to do “the easy thing".

 

And we all know, there is NOTHING easy about this. I battle everyday. Some days I win, some days I lose, some days it’s a tie. But as long as those winning days are more than the losing or tying days, I am ahead of the game.

 

For all those who think this is the easy way out, please fill my shoes and let me know how easy it really is.

 

I also try to put them on the defense and ask

 

“How did you get here? Did you walk or did you take the easy way out and used a vehicle? .. How did you sleep? Were you in the dirt, or did you take the easy way out and use a bed? .. How is your abode? Do you live in a lean-to, or did you take the easy way out and live in a dwelling? .. How did you communicate today, did you go to everyone personally and speak to them or did you take the easy way out and use a phone or another electronic device? .. The last time they got sick did they just tough it out or did you take the easy way out and go to a Doctor .. When you ate did you actually grow the vegetables and slaughter the animal or did you take the easy way out and get the stuff at the supermarket? ..

Funny how many “easy way out" things we use to help ourselves everyday, and take for granted - and not too many people complain about it.

I love your technique for putting them on the defensive, Tom. Wishing to avoid people's comments and judgments is one of the reasons I have not told anyone I was banded except for my brother and sister and one trusted friend. I had to have a large hiatal hernia repaired at the same time I got the band so, if anyone asks about my surgery, I tell them it was to repair the hiatal hernia. Not lying, just not all the truth. The hernia needed to be repaired whether I got the band or not.