What is exciting about the band!

Hello all,

I just want to share what is exciting about the band with you today.  Like I've mentioned previously, I had my band surgery in 2008, however I never understood it and I didn't use it, nor did I know how to use it properly.  Instead, I thought I had failed and I turned to diet pills.

It has taken me several, several years to wrap my head around eating, emotional eating, and portion sizes.  It wasn't until I absolutely could not take diet pills any longer, due to some serious side effects, that I realised that I might be able to give the lapband another chance.

And here is where I get to the exciting part.  I had a lapband in me for six years, and never used it properly.  Now, I have been educating myself and I found a new doctor in my new hometown (since I moved) and I've been getting support. I have been learning about what I need to do to be successful with the band!  I've been learning that there is hope, and that I had never used it properly to begin with, and I realised that I had never found the proper restriction previously with  the band.

More than that, I want to share some aspects of the band that I've had to come to terms with head-on. I am an emotional eater, and I've always wanted a very "stuffed" feeling when I eat.  I would binge eat until I felt so full and over-satisfied.  You simply cannot do this with the band or else you are going to hurt yourself.  I can only thank God that I did not damage my band, but thankfully I did not have much restriction before and I did all the wrong things, such as eating slider foods, drinking with my meals to wash down the food, and eating things that were soft like ice cream and cake.

The band has made me confront my emotional eating, and the extreme desire to feel overly stuffed.  I have to relearn to eat a proper amount and feel full - satisfied and full.  Not stuffed.

I also want to share something else.  It was very, very hard for me to wrap my brain around the portion sizes.  I would suggest for any of you struggling with this to go on Youtube, like I did, and watch videos from patients with the lapband or other weight loss surgeries who share what they eat in a typical day.  It will be very eye-opening!

My portion sizes have been way too large, and I'm thankful for what I have learned from others in the lapband community for how to get your head around this.  I have now (as of two days ago!) bought my first digital scale and I have been weighing my food.  I aim to eat 8 ounces or less for my meals now.  I also bought smaller dishes, and it really does make a difference to put your food on a small plate or bowl and to eat with a smaller fork or spoon.  These are little tricks to help you along the way.

I just want to share how exciting the lapband is, because it is the only surgery that is adjustable!  I thought for many years that I had failed, but I really had not learned how to use it properly, and I was never properly adjusted.  I now have a second chance.  If you have failed with the band, then you can give yourself another chance as well.  As I read on another site, the band helps 30% with the weightloss and your mentality and mindset is the other 70% of your journey.  You have to wrap your head around how to change your lifestyle and use your tool correctly.  You have to make good choices each day.

 The best thing is that the band is adjustable.  If I would have had the sleeve, I'm afraid that I would have stretched out my new stomach before I ever understood how to eat properly.  With the band, I am free to start again.  The adjustability of the lapband is what makes it so exciting.  As my mind adjusts I can adjust my band too!

As a side note, I just want to say that I don't know if I can fully express how wonderful it is to not be dependent on those awful diet pills anymore.  I am finding so much more freedom with my band.  I am no longer a slave to pills, that are doing who-knows-what to my body.  I am also no longer a slave to not being able to control myself when going to a restaurant, and eating the biggest sized portions out of a group of people.  It seemed I was always obsessed with food before getting my band properly adjusted.   The band is exciting because it is adjustable and gives you another chance when you get your mindset right.