At a BMI of 68.4 I often worried that the outdoor chairs would not be able to support me.
For those of you not familiar with my story, I started out with a BMI of 68.4. I finished at 28.1. While I would love to have a BMI of 25 or less, it is just not in the cards for me. It has taken me a few years and a lot of soul searching to come to terms with the fact that I will never be skinny. The good news is, I will never again be fat. The best news is, I am healthy, strong and loving banded living after losing 250 pounds. When you look at that number you might think that was my starting weight, but it is not. That is the amount I have been able to lose thanks to my lap band, a great support team, and a lot of self determination.
Looking back over the past 6 years I have come to realize that there are a few things I do as pure course of habit now that I did not do before I had a lap band. These are what will help keep me from ever allowing my weight to get out of hand again. Some call these tips, some call these rules, some call these working their tool. Here is what I started doing from the time I woke up after having lap band surgery that keeps me “honest”:
- I never drink with my meals. I wait at least ½ hour after each meal. The only exception is the occasional glass of wine with dinner on the weekend.
- I plan my meals, sometimes a day at a time, sometimes a week at a time. This includes meals out at restaurants as well as at home and in my office. I make sure to have plenty of protein and high fiber fruits and vegetables.
- I get in my water every day.
- For the first 2 years I wrote down everything I ate and drank and totaled calories and protein at the end of each day to make sure I was within my target range. Now, as long as the scale is consistent, I can estimate the calories. The minute the scale moves up I start writing it down again.
- I attend support groups regularly. You may think that 6 years out I shouldn’t need this any more, but I do. I love the community that I am a part of, and I love learning new things and sharing my knowledge with others.
- When I am having a hard time I reach out for my one on one support people. There is no reason to be alone and isolated in stressful times. Sometimes this is my husband, other times my doctor, other times my banded friends.
- I exercise regularly. This started meaning walking around the mall, then progressing to swimming, now it means swimming, treadmill, weights, bicycle, walks, my choice which is great.
When you start out with a high BMI and a lap band it is hard not to lose some weight at the very beginning. Face it, we had to be doing a lot wrong to get to a high BMI in the first place. This will not go on forever. For me, I was a miss goody two shoes and followed the doctor’s instructions to the letter so I always had a weight loss. This is the commitment I made to myself before surgery. If I thought I was beginning to stray, I reviewed my list of “to do’s” and figured out what needed to be adjusted, be it my lap band, my food choices, my exercise routine, my portion sizes, or just my thought process, or what my doctor calls a “head adjustment”. Then I did the appropriate adjustment and I am living the results.
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Sandi,
This is very encouraging. When I attended the seminar at my clinic @ 2 yrs post op, one of the doctors stated emphatically that the lap band was not recommended for anyone with a BMI +50. I immediately stood up and commented that my BMI was 54.5 and I was doing quite well. My doctor agreed with me. I have known plenty of folks with high BMI’s that have had the Band and have been very successful.
Chris