Tip for success number two: Eat slowly and chew your food very well. The lap-band works best when you’re not in a hurry, eat slowly and chew your food very well. These two things are both about helping you and about knowing how the lap-band works. Now eating slowly is kind of amazing because not only does it help with the whole eating less part, but you actually enjoy your food more. Let’s get technical for a minute here, the lap-band basically needs your food to be mush to pass through so you’ve got to chew really well or you could end up feeling sick also remember that your lap band is sending the signal to your brain okay we’re done here you may even feel the food passing through your band but you need to give yourself a minute for all that to process. So how long are we talking here think about it this way, eat a small fork full put the fork down and chew thoroughly don’t pick the fork up until you have swallowed and then repeat. The key to this is paying attention to your body and band saying okay that’s enough.