Interesting.

I may have learned something about the band this morning.

For the past few weeks, I have gotten into the habit of making coffee every morning and drinking it on the way to work in a travel mug. Then after 30-45 minutes, I eat my breakfast. At the same time, my weight loss has slowed down a bit. I figured it was due to slacking on exercise and/or making bad choices. I've also been wondering if I needed a fill because I've been getting hungrier between meals and snacking more. Good snack choices, but still.

So this morning, I made my coffee, but I decided to do something different. I was up early enough (thanks to a cat) to eat breakfast at home, which is rare. I ate my breakfast first, then showered and finished getting ready for work. I took my coffee with me and it was at least 30 minutes from the time I'd eaten until I started drinking it.

When lunchtime rolled around, I wasn't hungry. At all. About an hour afterwards, I felt a little hungry. After eating part of my lunch, I felt satisfied. That seemed kind of odd to me.

Then I thought about the coffee. Sometimes bandsters are really restricted in the morning, and in some cases they can't even eat breakfast and have to adjust their meals so they are eating breakfast at lunch, lunch at dinner, and so forth. Sometimes doctors recommend drinking a warm or hot beverage 30-60 minutes (whatever their cutoff is, it varies) before trying to eat. The theory is that it can "open up" the band a little bit and allow you to eat.

Because of that, I'm wondering that if by drinking that coffee every morning, before eating anything, I've been opening up my band enough so that I'm hungrier and able to eat more? Of course, if that's the case, then drinking it after breakfast should've made me hungry too, right? Maybe not because I've already eaten?

Of course, it could just be a fluke...nobody eats the same amount of food every day anyway, so maybe I'm just not as hungry today, period. Still, I think it's worth exploring. I like drinking coffee, but I would definitely change my habits or stop it altogether if I think it might be impeding my weight loss in anyway. Hmmm.