Fanny Adams

Aww but Plain!!! I promise I'll hide those nudes from him!! You don't have to post them in public - just PM them to me! :tongue2:

Yes, Fanny has a beau! :biggrin: It is very surreal at the moment for me. I separated from my ex 16 years ago and it was a couple of years before that since I last felt loved by anyone, so I've been emotionally alone for nearly 20 years. In all the time since, I've had some casual relationships but it was never anything that went beyond lust and affection. Most of that was by my deliberate choice, as I avoided any kind of emotional entanglement. In the last few years, I've been much more open to seeing someone on a more significant level but the weight and other factors has always seemed to get in the way. After making a major mistake in getting involved with my ex, I was determined that if I ever travelled this road again, I would take it slowly and make sure I knew the person well before I let my heart get involved. It doesn't seem to be working that way, however. When I've taken it slowly, I've never let my heart get involved at all. This time round, it is all happening at the speed of light, is scaring the HELL out of me, but at the same time feels so right and so good and I don't want to stop... *sigh* I feel like a bloody teenager!! PS: The Veronicas kick arse! I've done my bit for their fame by introducing a few online Yank friends to their music :tongue2:

Posting just to say...life is sweet :tongue2: and to ask those of you with significant others: How long did it take before you started thinking (not necessarily saying) the L word? *sighs*

YES! Yes, I did! :tongue2:

I said this a little under 2 months ago: How quickly life can change. I take it back. I take it all back!

There are several reasons. Firstly, a percentage of the weight you lost on the pre-op diet wasn't actual fat being lost, it was losing the contents of your digestive system as it empties and isn't replaced, except by the small volume of the Optifast or whatever you used. That gives you a "false high" reading, which makes you think that rate should continue, except that now your digestive system is largely empty and you won't see that rate of drop again, because what you're seeing now is actual fat loss. Secondly, they put you on a saline drip for the operation, which boosts the fluid levels in your body and water is really really heavy (much heavier than fat). Thirdly, your body is swollen from the operation. All that swelling is even more fluid retention, masking the weight loss that is occurring. Gradually your body will let go of the fluid and return to a more normal balance. At the same time, you gradually move on to thicker liquids and then mushies, which fill your digestive system again. This often means that you have a couple of weeks of plateauing or even a small regain in the post-op weeks. You are losing weight, probably at the expected rate of about 2lb per week, but while your body is going up and down with fluids and solids all out of whack, the scales are going to be really inaccurate, firstly showing a faster loss than was really there (pre-op) and then hiding the real loss that is continuing (post-op). By the time you get back onto solids at about 4-6 weeks post-op, all that will have balanced out and you can start to trust the scales again. At this point, take measurements instead. Your bust, hip, thigh and arm measurements will show the losses more accurately. Your waist measurement is much more subjective to fluid, bloating, swelling and other factors, so it isn't really accurate yet either. Take heart, it IS happening beneath the surface and it will all show up in the end. Congrats again on arriving in Bandland!

Luluc, yes I'm in Perth and if I'm not up on site, I'd love to meet up for a coffee or something! Let me know the dates and I'll check my roster to work out if I'm going to be in town. Come prepared for some HOT dry weather at that time of year!

Thanks for the advice, Kathybad, I'll concentrate on intervals not speed for now. I've been doing my jogs at the park this last few days - man, it is SO much harder on grass compared to the treadmill! I think I'll pattern my intervals to fit my Fly In/Fly Out roster. I work 8 days on a mine site, then spend 6 days home. On site, I use the treadmill because it is just WAY too stinking hot to go outside (it's in the far northern outback of Western Australia), and at home I go to the park. I'll increase my intervals on the first day back on site, get used to the new ratio on the treadmill, then consolidate it and push it harder by doing the same rate at home on grass, then up the interval on the next swing. What do you think? It makes a 2 week pattern, not 1 week as the program says, but I'm having trouble increasing in the 1 week intervals as it is, so I think it will suit me.

Welcome to the club, SNT!! I hope your journey to health is an easy one! Now you'll have to update the byline under your name, coz you're no longer "pre-banded"! And thanks for the congrats :smile2:

Hmm.. well the bottom of my bra sits exactly level with the base of my sternum (the bone/cartilage that joins your ribs together). My port is about 3-4 inches below that (and about 4-5 inches above my belly button). For my port to sit directly beneath the bra itself, it would have to be under the skin on top of my ribs, and I can't really imagine that! Wouldn't it stick out awfully far too?

Posting just to say LOOK AT MY TICKER!! LOOK AT MY TICKER!! Note the 8 at the beginning of the number on the kg ticker!! Note the 1 at the beginning of the number on the lb ticker!! WHOOHOOO!!! :smile2::biggrin::thumbup:

Congrats Damo!! I'm thrilled for you! The Optisludge phase is yuck but it does work wonders! Thank goodness we don't have to stick to that for the whole ride down to a healthy weight. Stick to your guns while you're on it and take comfort in knowing that it won't be forever.

You should be very happy! That is a very healthy rate of loss. I know it can be frustrating when you see some others losing faster, but time is on our side and we'll get there eventually. I was at just about the same point as you at 7 months out. I'm now at 10.5 months out and hit Onederland today. As the Pantene commercial says, "It won't happen over night, but it WILL happen!" Congratulations!

You mean it is stitched onto the top of your ribs??

I made it!! I made it!! I made it!! YAY!!!

Advice please. I read the speeds someone else said they were walking/running at and did the conversions to metric so I could understand it :regular_smile: and realised that I am going WAY slow . I've been increasing my intervals and feeling that I'm ready to move forward but don't know if I should try to increase the speed at the current interval or up the intervals again. Which do you recommend? Or should I do both and step my way up, i.e. increase the speed at the current interval, then increase the interval at a slower speed, then increase the speed till I can do that interval at the higher speed, etc?

I spotted this article on a side bar on my online news this morning: Fancy footworkFitFlop fitness craze. Their website is here: The FitFlop Anyone tried them? Is it all hype or does it make a difference?

*waves at SNT* Where in Perth is your brother based? I'm a Perth girl and just have to say (especially to She Smiles) WEST IS BEST!! :thumbup: If you want, I can give him some recommendations for places to go, things to see.

Ok, folks, I'm back in the game. It's been 8 days since my operation and my tummy is just about pain free (still a little pulling when I bend), so time to get off my butt and get back into it. My back has been giving me serious pain for the last couple of days (sciatic nerve) and I planned to ease back in with some very gentle walking. Well!! After 5 minutes of very gentle walking, my back felt better enough that I pushed the pace up to 5 more minutes of fast walking. After that, the pain had diminished to the point that I was brave enough to try the jog/walk pattern again! I only did 10 minutes of that, then a 3 minute cooldown walk, but my back is almost painfree now! Who woulda thunk it? Tomorrow, I'm back on track for the full 30 minute session!!

Thanks for that link, Sunwyse! I'm always on the lookout for new bra shops - it's my biggest shopping weakness! I just love lingerie!

Thanks for the welcome, folks! I really enjoyed the first couple of weeks on the program. Unfortunately, I have to take a slight hiaitus, as I go back under the knife tomorrow to get a kink in my tube fixed. I'm hoping that I'll be ok to get back on the program in about 1-2 weeks. One of the reasons I started the program was to step up the fitness level before surgery, in the hopes that it might help with recovery times. I also posted just before taking a program break on purpose, so that I wouldn't be able to slink off into the night and not go back to it. So if I disappear from the thread altogether for a while, one of you kind folks will kick me in the bum and tell me to get off it and get back out there, won't you? :biggrin:

Clear liquids are anything clear or semi-transluscent. Examples would be chicken, beef or vegetable stock, Crystal Light, jello, cordials. Full liquids are thick and opaque. Examples would be Cream of [anything] soup (not the thick & chunky varieties, those are mushies), plain yogurt (if it's got fruit chunks, it's a mushy), Optifast.

Oh well, hopefully this will be just a little hiccup on the journey but it's a bit of a PITA anyway :wink_smile:... A couple of months ago, I started noticing an odd lump deep under my skin, near the port, about 1-2" above and left. It only showed up when I am lying on my right side and relaxing all my stomach muscles. I knew it wasn't the port, because I could still feel that in its usual place. At first I thought it was the band itself, but another post in here that I saw made me think it might be the tubing. Over the last few weeks, the lump has become more prominent and seemed to move closer to the surface. It really felt to me like it was part of the tubing kinking forward. Last week it started getting a little sore, not much, just like it was a little bruised but it was definitely closer to the surface, so I rang the doctor. Today, I had an ultrasound and it looks like my guess is right but they're not sure, so tomorrow I go back for a CT scan. The surgeons says it is an extremely rare occurrence but should be a simple fix. He'll just need to move it and suture it down so it doesn't come back up. I'm hoping we can put off any corrections until late August, as my private insurance doesn't kick in till then. I only joined the fund last year and there is a 12 month waiting period on pre-existing conditions :tt2: I was self-pay on the lapband but I really don't want to have to shell out for another op from my own pocket. Wish me luck to say that hopefully the situation isn't serious and can be just left as is and monitored for the next three months till I'm covered.

Heading in tomorrow. Wish me luck, peoples!

Sounds like you are exactly on the right track to me. We have to learn not to be afraid of feeling a little hungry for a little while. The band is not supposed to mean that you don't feel hungry EVER. It is perfectly normal and perfectly ok to feel a little hungry as meal times approach. What the band is supposed to do is to stop you eating a meal sized for 3 people (as I used to do every night) and to stop you feeling like you're starving in between meals. By the time you tighten it up to the point that you feel no hunger at all, you are almost certain to be too tight and won't be able to eat properly, leading to dependence on generally high fat/high carb/high suger slider foods and weight gain. It's meant to be a tool, not a miracle cure, so it does require a little work on our part. I think you are doing exactly the right thing - controlling mild hunger before meals. When it starts to get to raging hunger or the meal sizes start getting large again, that's the time to tighten the band in another notch.