The Two Year Lap Band Adventure

In December of 2007 I decided to have lap band surgery. It was a huge decision that I really thought about. The main reason for my decision had to do with the history of diabetes in my family. Not only did my mom die of complications from diabetes, so did my aunt and my grandmother. There are also several family member's on my mother's side who have or had Type 2 diabetes. I knew that at the rate that I was going I was well on my way to follow in the family tradition.

Another reason I decided that this was the best option was the fact that both times that I lost weight I had to place myself in a radical situation. Both times that I lost thirty pounds I was pregnant and I had gestational diabetes. I had to be strict because my baby was counting on me.

The lap band was a lot like that. It placed me in a drastic situation that forced me to stop eating certain things and to control my portion size. Since I've had the lap band I haven't had a carbonated drink. Carbonation is really bad for the band because of the gas that expands in your stomach. It can cause the band to stretch and complications can arise. I also haven't had bread because bread also swells and can get stuck in the band. I haven't had breakfast in almost two years because I'm always tight in the morning. I can only have coffee and a protein shake for breakfast.

If you don't understand how the lap band works look at the illustration above. The band goes around my stomach, causing the opening to tighten. Because of this I can't eat things like bread that get backed up at the opening and cause me to stop eating everything. Instead I have to eat small bites and I have to chew them really well so that the food can go through. I've learned to eat less, to eat slower, and to really chew my food well. I've also learned to NOT eat certain food and I never thought that could happen. I've also learned not to drink when I eat. Drinking with my food can cause two things. Either my food will get backed up with all the fluid or it will push the food through causing me to eat more. Sometimes I can feel tight from hormonal changes. In the morning I'm very tight and I loosen up as the days progresses.

I lost the majority of the forty pounds in the first year. This year I've only lost and gained around ten pounds and I am completely responsible for that. I didn't read my body in order to make the right decisions regarding when to go in to the lap band clinic to have the lap band tightened or loosened.

I got thrown off of my path close to a year ago when I got sick. I won't get into all the boring details of what happened, but I learned a lesson. For six months I was super tight. I could hardly eat during the day so I was eating too much at the end of the day. My body probably thought it was starving during the day so it started just hanging on to the food I was eating. On top of that I'm sure I was over-eating in the evening or eating things that were bad for me, like chips. For some odd reason I can eat chips really well. There's something about crunchy things that makes the texture a lot easier to digest.

I got sick a couple of months ago and I had to have the band loosened. That was the second time that happened to me in one year. Then I went in a couple of weeks ago to have the bad tightened a bit, but I wanted to ease into it so I only had them tighten it a little less than half of what it was loosened last time. Apparently that was not enough. Now I have to go in to have it tightened a tiny tiny bit, but enough to give me some restriction. I haven't found exactly the right restriction since I was thrown off of my original schedule.

So this is where my blog will pick up. I've gained and lost ten pounds with the back and forth and not having very much restriction. On top of all this I had abdominal surgery for a umbilical hernia back in August and I couldn't exercise for around 8-12 weeks. It has been VERY hard to get back on track, but now almost 16 weeks later I have got to get back into the gym and on to the track walking/running.

This blog will be very instrumental in keeping me on track and keeping me honest. I invite you to join me on my adventure as I work on losing forty more pounds in another year. My goal is one pound a week!

The tools? 1. Tracking my food on livestrong.com, yes as in Lance Armstrong. It is one of the best places to track your food and it's FREE for basic services. 2. I'm also weighing myself every day, because studies have shown that people who weigh themselves on a regular basis are more likely to lose weight and to keep weight down. 3. And finally... finally I am going to put my gym fees to good use. I am going to make it a point to work out for at least 30 minutes every day.

There. Are you ready? Join me and let's see how much we can accomplish doing these three things.

Welcome to Hips 'n Salsa

I've been writing this blog in my head for the past week. When you start a blog it’s only fitting to introduce yourself and tell you all why I chose this subject.

I have so much to say when it comes to weight and body image that I don't even know where to start. All these memories float around in my head, starting with being conscious of my body at a very young age. I'm the youngest of five girls so that was inevitable. Therefore I was pressured at a very young age to conform to society's idea of beauty. And I rebelled.

When I saw the movie, "Real Women Have Curves" I finally found a movie that verbalized how I felt growing up. The protagonist, Ana Garcia (played by America Ferrera) is fed up with how society expects women to conform. In a liberating moment, and to her mother’s horror, she pulls off her t-shirt and her pants and works in her underwear in her sister’s hot dress shop. That is how I felt as I grew older.

I remember dieting at eleven, the summer I was taking a ballet class because I thought my best friend was much more graceful than me. I remember thinking that her natural grace was related to how slim she was. I started drinking Diet Coke after swim practice when I was in eighth grade. In high school I did aerobics religiously every day at 5:30 p.m. with a show on the Lifetime channel, “It Figures.” I kept my weight steady but it still crept up.

Once I went to college and I entered by twenties I felt liberated. I felt like I was an adult and no one was going to tell me what to do. I was living at home and had to conform to my parents’ house rules, but I was paying my way through college with financial aid and I earned my own spending money selling advertising for my university’s newspaper. From then on the weight came on and the yo-yo dieting continued.

I steadily gained weight through my twenties. It was such a contradiction of feelings. On one hand it bothered me that I was gaining weight, but on the other hand I didn’t want to let it bother me. I wanted to just enjoy life without worrying. I thought that thinking about my size made me shallow.

Then my mother died the month before my 30th birthday from complications of diabetes and my whole outlook on body weight and size changed. To be continued…