Quote:
Originally Posted by ingyrob  You have done extremely well then to have lost all that weight without "normal person" fills and being unable to tolerate the band. It must have been a disadvantage which makes your quick loss all the more remarkable. Are you going to keep your band and carry on with the medication?
Did you do a much exercise?
Sorry about all the questions, but you have done so well and I just wondered how you have done it. |
I doubt I *could* keep it without Luvox. So yes, I know that as long as I want to keep my band I have to take the drug and I want to keep my band. Life is sooo much easier with it when it comes to food issues.
The first six months was really horrible. My problem hadn't been diagnosed at that time and I was miserable. Everyone here had to hear about it. Daily. ;) I just hated the band and hated everything about it. I just had to be really careful to make good food choices. Instead of milkshakes I drank protein shakes made with water (I still do that, I prefer it though). Instead of crunchy things like chips and cookies I ate veggie chips. Vegetables that are baked until they are dry and crunchy. Here they are:
J&D Fine Foods | Nuts By The Pound | Dried Fruit By The Pound | Candy By The Pound | Gift Baskets | Wholesale Bulk Nuts
I couldn't eat any fresh fruit so instead of Mickey D's yogurt with fruit I ate dried fruit (see above link). But then the problem was diagnosed and finally we tried Luvox and now I'm very close to a normal banded person. ;) I still can't tolerate normal person fills but I've learned to deal with it.
It was easy to get the bad stuff down but the good stuff made me barf non stop. There were times I'd barf 30+ times weekly so I had to learn what I could eat and I made sure it wasn't crap food. I'm still shocked that my band didn't slip. I've told my doc that he had to have used glue, cement, epoxy, sutures, staples, and paper clips to keep it in place.
I decided at the time that I wasn't going through all that to stay fat so I dropped my calories down to 600 and I've pretty much kept it there since I was banded. Not my doc's ideal diet but I wanted this chapter closed for good and I wanted it done quickly. He prefers 800 calories daily and with good restriction, it's totally doable. But I cut out all white carbs so with protein intake, I honestly wasn't (and am not) hungry much. It's the white carbs that are a killer to us. It messes with your blood sugar and causes blood sugar spikes. That's part of the chain that causes hunger. No blood sugar spikes and you have very little hunger.
Exercise... oh yeah! Tons of exercise. People used to laugh at me because if they called I'd jump on the treadmill and do power walking while chatting. It made the time fly by. If I wasn't on the phone I was watching DVDs with my head phones on and running. I was running about five miles daily. Now I walk and/or run for about a total of five+ miles daily. I'm just now getting the nerve to run outside in front of actual people but I wait until 11:30PM to do it. ;) Of course then there was naked guy the other night but that's another story. For the most part I was doing 60-120 minutes of cardio daily, at least half of it was hard cardio.
I did buy a Bowflex but I still don't quite know what to do with it so I haven't really started using that yet.
Clearly my way isn't for everyone. Each person has to find what works for them and do that. If you are losing weight and it's not too fast and not too slow, if you are getting your nutrition in, if you are healthy, and if you and your doc are happy then whatever way you choose is the right way.
The one thing that kept me going was that I created my infamous goal. I've talked to death about it here but my goal has always been to get banded, lose weight, and have plastic surgery within a year. My band was 12/6/06, I am at goal, and plastic surgery is scheduled for 12/3/07. All in a year.
I'd try to find a goal that really seriously means something to you. Something that matters a great deal for you and work towards that goal.
I also did things for myself at various milestones. I started out morbidly obese so when I was only "seriously" obese ;) I think I bought a bunch of cool stuff for my computer. Then when I was just "obese" I went to see a banded friend out of state, when I was just "fat" I had my hair completely redone at a fancy salon.
Come up with mini goals for yourself and do something that you honestly enjoy as a reward. Something you will sincerely look forward to and it is worth working a little harder so you can have that "thing" you want. Otherwise you end up feeling like every single day is a chore to lose weight. Instead of focusing on that, you can focus on the cool goal you have in mind. It made a huge difference for me.
Sorry, this turned into a book, I didn't mean for that to happen but to be honest, it happens a lot. ;)
One thread many of us enjoyed was this one, lots of fun ideas for food variety:
http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f9/cheape...triceating.com
Hope this helps!
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