Surgery 11-17-10 Long Island, NY

Greetings!!

My name is Diane and I had surgery on November 17, 2010.  I live in Long Island, New York.  I have lost 38 pounds total but only 18 of thos pounds are post op.  However, I have lost 16 1/2 inches post op and that truly excites me because I can see the differences in my body ( Hubby does, too!).

I had my first fill yesterday and while I don't know what size band I have or how much they put in -- it was an interesting process.  I think I heard the docs say I had 6.6 in -- whatever, as long as I lose weight, right?  I have felt a bit stalled over the last few weeks, but my surgeon told me , I was where I should be at the moment.

I find life after surgery to be a balancing act.  I think in the beginning, I wasn't eating enough and I found myself missing the healthy stuff that I couldn't eat before I went on regular foods (salad, grapes, cantaloupe, apples).  Last week, I began to change the way I ate and varied my foods some I started to lose.  My weight had flucatuated up three pounds but I wasn't owning those pounds -- there's no way I ate that much!!  Since then I let go of those three pounds and three more. 

I am excited about this group because I can use the motivation to exercise and just chat.  I'm hoping this will be a more supportive environment than the larger lap band forum.  While understand there are a  lot of negatives to the band -- to be honest, I'm not interested in hearing all of that.  I have this band in my body and my interest is in working it.  I've read the studies and side effects.  I know the stats on weight loss in general,  I know the chances of success -- after all, if we are here, we have all lived through that right?  So, I want to focus on my here and now and improving my chances of success. 

Well, that's it for now!  I'm looking forward to good things!

Diane

Congrats on 38 lbs! 18 lbs since November 17 is amazing, especially considering you've had nothing but will power to get you through. I think the numbers on the band don't really matter because everyone is so different. I know that my experiences have been unlike anyone else I've talked with. The few times I've brought up things in the main discussion, I found myself getting defensive. If you don't share the same type of problem with someone, there's no way they can relate. (But some sympathy would be nice!)

Oddly, I still can't really eat salad and many fruits. Bananas are a favorite and it's a 50/50 shot on whether it will stay down. (This is where all of the advice on "eat slowly", "chew more" don't really apply - my band has it's own mind of what it will tolerate on any given day, or hour!)

The single coolest thing about the band for me is that it keeps working even when I'm not in the mood for it to. There have been times where I would have reached in and ripped it out for the chance to eat steak, for example. I've done the yo-yo dieting before and it's so depressing. I've been so much more steady with the band. And there's always the option of seeing a doctor when things go off-track.

I imagine exercise must be tough in New York this time of year! In Texas, we start complaining around 45 F and go into despair when it freezes (like it did last night). I still managed to make it out for a run yesterday afternoon but it sucked. I admire the tough people up north! (But I doubt you guys get to celebrate Confederate's Heroes Day, which is January 19.)