To be too tight, or not to be?

Although a few days ago I was a little pessimistic about the success of my latest band fill, I am progressively getting more optimistic. I think the difference it has made is very small, and subtle, but I do think it may have made a vital difference. I have given a lot of thought to something a lady said on the UKGastricBand forum the other day. She was explaining to someone what the so-called 'sweet spot' was, and she said, rightly I think, that it is different things to different people. In theory, of course, it is simply the level of restriction that is not too much that you get the awful side effects of regurgitation, heartburn, indigestion and acid reflux, but tight enough that you get a feeling of fullness and lose weight steadily. However, this is a somewhat simplistic view that omits the perceptions, objectives and coping strategies of inviduals. When you begin to delve into this and explore how different bandits perceive the sweet spot, it is clear that some people prefer to be very tight, even if they do get the side effects, because they cannot 'trust' themselves to live with the band being any looser. On the other hand, some prefer to be a little loose so that they can continue to enjoy eating out and living a fairly 'normal' life.

So where am I with this? Well first, I feel I should point out that I might change my mind about this next week!! At the moment (!), I feel that I do not want my band to be very tight. I've heard all sorts of horror stories about side effects, but even if you get away without them, there is always the fact that it could take an hour to eat a small meal or half an hour to drink a glass of water. I've had a little experience of living like this when I was too tight a few months ago and it is no way to live - well not for me anyway. I like the fact that I can still eat out with friends and although I am the last to finish my meal (even if I've had much less than them!), I'm not SO slow that it's awkward or embarrassing.

I think that having a sweet spot that is slightly on the loose side does have its downside. For instance, I could eat larger portions than I am doing - it takes quite a lot of willpower to resist the temptation sometimes. But this can be overcome to some extent by religiously sticking to eating the 'right; kins of foods - especially dry textured, crunchy salad vetetables, fish, lightly cooked potatoes, pasta and rice, and so on.

At the last support group meeting I went to, the consultant said that when bandits get to their goal weight, he feels that it's nice if they can have a very small aspiration - say 0.2ml or so. Since he said that I've actually had 0.2ml put in my band. It occurs to me now, that if I had that amount taken out again when I reach my goal weight, I think I would be at exactly the right level to stick at for the rest of my life!! In other words, I could quite happily exist at that level of restriction but manage to eat more than I am doing at present (i.e. enough to maintain weight rather than continue losing). So I suppose that's another good reson for sticking at the level of restriction I have now - it won't be such a big change when I get to goal weight. I am, in effect, already starting to 'train' myself for the big post-goal weight world awaiting me out there!!!