Fanny Adams
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Everything posted by Fanny Adams
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Ahhh... I didn't realise that and thought you were commenting on average losses for bandsters in the long term. 2lb in 3 weeks is low for the beginning of a journey and is probably frustrating for the person, but everyone's journey is different, so maybe he/she will just continue on with the steady pattern. For myself, I lost 15lb in 15 days, counting from the beginning of my 10 day pre-op diet up to 5 days post-op. After that I regained 3-4lb, whilst still on thick liquids and only taking in 4-500 cal a day! My body played around with those 3-4lb for the next two weeks, losing and gaining them over and over, and drove me utterly mad. I think it was a combination of several things - the initial weight loss included a lot of fluid loss, which eventually evened out causing me to regain, the common body reaction to greatly reduced calorie intake causing it to hang on to every calorie it can find, my bad habit of putting a lot of salt on my soups in a desperate effort to get more flavour to assuage the hunger pangs after I healed, and that old friend ToM :hurt: It was after Xmas (15-20 days post-op) before the scales finally dipped below the 15lb loss marker again, but since then it has been going down reasonably steadily. It still likes to drop a chunk almost overnight (like 4-5lb) then regain 1-2lb and play around with that for a week or more before it will drop the next chunk, but I'm learning to accept that and trust that the losses will come in time. So are you on a pre-op diet? If you are, how are you coping with that - it is HARD eh? Good luck with your surgery and your journey :redface:
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@laphappy40: Let me echo StephC's sentiments of concern. I find statements like "i can barely get water down" to be quite disturbing and am frightened for you if this is the case. Restriction is meant to work to help us feel full for much longer on much smaller quantities of food, not to reduce our appetites to absolute zero or be so tight that we cannot drink water. This is quite a dangerous long term situation to be in. At worst, you will end up PB'ing so much on solid foods that you could cause slippage problems down the track or be so tight that you cause erosion problems. At the very least, you will find yourself eating the "easy" foods that are high calorie/high fat, because they go down while good nutritious low cal/low fat/high fibre foods get stuck often. The result of this is likely to be that you stop losing or even gain, whilst all while "hardly eating anything", still suffering from head hunger because the low fibre foods don't make you feel full and possibly leading to malnutrition problems. @bandfan1: 3lb in 2 weeks is an average of 1 to 2lb per week, which is right on target for the band. Most people will find that they lose quite a few lb in their pre-op diet and in the first 2 weeks following the op, but after that it slows down substantially. The initial loss is exciting and gratifying but that is not how the band is meant to work long term. The idea is to prevent overeating, not to stop eating altogether, and after the initial rapid loss, 1-2lb per week loss is normal. To achieve a faster rate, you need to either add intensive exercise (a good method!) or decrease your food intake to dangerously low levels (not so good! see above comments to laphappy40). As many people in this forum are fond of saying, this is a marathon, not a sprint and we should be planning to be in this race for the long haul, not the short term. An average loss of 2lb per week adds up to 100lb in a year, which is a huge chunk of weight to drop and gratifying in itself. If you come into this with the expectation that you will be dropping 10lb per week, every week, you will be setting yourself up for later disappointment and possibly end up trying for more and more restriction and cause problems for yourself. Good luck to both of you, but remember - slow and steady wins this race!
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"This semester, I've got a student that insists on calling me "Lauren" in his emails to me, and it really rubs me the wrong way, even though I've not said anything to him. " LOL! You'd hate to teach college in Australia then :redface:. It would absolutely never have occurred to me to call any one of my college or university lecturers by anything OTHER than their first name. I don't believe I have ever addressed anyone, be it a university Dean or corporation CEO, as Mr or Miss So-and-so, since my high school days!
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Hehehe, don't get me wrong, folks. I'm usually still just as obsessed with food, which was why it was such a surprise to discover I had forgotten!! Still, I really have noticed a great lessening of the hunger daemon since my last fill - YAY!
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I have always had a very hard time telling hunger pangs from nicotine cravings. In pre-banding days, I would feel "an urge for something" and try having a cigarette - if the feeling went away, I had picked correctly, if it stayed, it meant I had been feeling hungry, not hanging for a cig, so I would try eating instead. Alternatively, I might try eating something the first time and again, if the urge went away, I had picked correctly, if not, I tried having a cig... My doctor asked me to try to give up smoking for the operation, so I did 4 weeks on the Patches - 2 pre-op and 2 post-op. I posted at the time about how easy it seemed to be. The patches really seemed to control my appetite - better than any "diet" pill I had ever tried, and I've tried a few!! Anyway, I went back to smoking after the 2 week post-op period but have since discovered that the band seems to be working to control my cigarette cravings!! I have smoked ALL my life (since a very young child - you don't want to know how young!!) but I have never been a very heavy smoker. In the past, I would buy a carton of cigs a fortnight - 8 pkts @ 25 per pack = 200 cigs, making an average of 100 cigs a week or 15 per day. Occasionally, I wouldn't quite make it to the end of the fortnight and would buy a top up packet on the last day, before buying a new carton. Just recently, I bought my carton as usual on Thursday, the day I fly up to work for my 8 day shift. Two weeks later, I have been home and am flying back up again and went to buy another carton. Before I did, I checked my cig stash and was amazed to discover that I still had 2.5 packs left! Instead of 8-9 packs, I had only consumed 5 & half! I had made no conscious effort to cut down, just thought I was smoking as usual, ie have one when I felt like it. I obviously just hadn't felt like it quite as often! Whoohoo - what a great side effect! I'm even contemplating MAKING the effort to cut down further, possibly even quit, which no longer seems the impossibility I've always viewed it as... Any other smokers out there had similar experiences?
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This has probably been posted before but it is relevant here and might be new to some. I might just go and add it to the Headhunter thread too, for the benefit of the newbies who are reading that. LAP-BAND: Statistics subframe <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top noWrap width=530 height=60>Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding In 2000 Consecutive Obese Patients: 12-Year Results </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top noWrap width=565 colSpan=2> Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) with the LAP-BAND is the most commonly performed surgical procedure for the treatment of morbid obesity in Europe, Australia and South America. Since FDA approval in 2001 the LAP-BAND has ranked second among all bariatric procedures performed in the U.S. and, to date, approximately 300,000 LAP-BAND procedures have been performed worldwide. Background: The purpose of this study was to examine 1,791 consecutive laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) procedures with up to 12 years of follow up. LAGB is widely accepted but its efficacy in the long run is questioned since long term results with a high follow-up rate are not common. Between September 1993 and December 2005, 1,791 consecutive patients (75.1% women, mean age 38.7 years, mean body weight 127.7+ –24 kg, mean body mass index (BMI) 46.2+ –7.7) underwent the LAP-BAND procedure. All operations were performed by ILOST surgeons, Dr. Franco Favretti and Dr. Gianni Segato, part of the multi-disciplinary team that developed the laparoscopic application of the LAP-BAND back in 1993. Results: The ILOST team of surgeons has performed the LAP-BAND procedure on more than 6.000 patients. Dr. Franco Favretti and Dr. Gianni Segato have just published the long term results (more than 12 years) of their own series of 2.000 patients. These results are unparalleled. There are no similar reports in the scientific literature. Results measured over 12 years included mortality, complications, weight loss and resolution/improvement of co-morbidities. Life expectancy was evaluated in an additional study of LAP-BAND vs. medical therapy. Patients were followed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-operatively and yearly thereafter. Band adjustments were performed with barium swallow under fluoroscopy. Zero surgical mortality in the entire series. A mortality rate of 0 in 1,791 consecutive LAP-BAND patients attests to the benign nature of the LAP-BAND surgery. Re-operation rate of less than 5%. Major complications requiring re-operation occurred in 106 (5.9%) patients. These included stomach slippage + pouch dilatation in 70 (3.9%) patients (band removed in 20 patients–1.1%, repositioned in 50 patients–2.8%), erosion in 16 (0.9%) patients (band removed), psychological intolerance in 14 (0.7%) patients (band removed), miscellaneous (HIV, infection, mircroperforation) in 5 (0.27%) patients (band removed) and gastric necrosis in 1 (0.05%) patient (gastrectomy performed). If we exclude the 31 major complications of the learning curve period (first 100 patients), the complication rate is reduced to 4.4%. Unprecedented 12-year follow-up rate of 91% allowed ILOST surgeons to report reliable data. Most common co-morbidities were hypertension (35.6%), osteoarthritis (57.8%), diabetes (22%), dislipidemia (27.1%), sleep apnea (31.4%), depression (21.2%), hyperuricemia (27.1%), gallstones (8.7%) irregular menstrual cycle (4.9%), heart failure (1.4%), sweet eating (22.5%) and binge eating (18.5%). Average weight loss in the entire series of 1,791 patients. Weight loss (kg, BMI, %EWL) for the entire series is represented in Figure 1. At 10 years the average weight was 101.4 ± 27.1 kg (loss of 26.3 kg), the BMI 37.7 ± 9.1 (loss of 8.5 points) and the %EWL was 38.5 ± 27.9. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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Wasa, I would never presume to argue with you on medical grounds. I have no hesitation in accepting your word for things in that area because I don't have the knowledge and experience to evaluate your comments. However, my skepticism was derived purely from non-medical grounds. The OP's comments about the Bariatric Surgery Industry being possible assassins and that there was a real danger that if anyone spoke out, they might get car-bombed is just utterly delusional to me. For example: "He also stated that he has been asked on a number of occasions to write articles on his experiences in various journals, but he has DECLINED to do so, because he would fear for his safety if he ever told everything he knows about the Bariatric Surgery Industry. He was very clear about that. He said that the Bariatric surgery Industry is a Multi-Billion dollar industry now, and doctors and hospitals are just making SO much money that they are ignoring some of the clear and present risks associated with the procedures, JUST TO MAKE MONEY. He said that if he told what he knew, he is quite sure that he would go out to his car some morning, turn the ignition, and be blown up. The Bariatric Industry is THAT powerful." If that doesn't scream paranoid delusions to you, I don't know what would! I know that the saying goes "you're not really paranoid if they are really after you" but honestly - do you think he or his surgeons are going to get car-bombed for speaking out? Another thing that really bothers me about this guy is that he DOES appeal to the hidden racist in us all. He makes allusions all the way through his posts that can never quite be pinned down but that will appeal to those people who already distrust "foreigners" and are therefore willing to believe any nasty story told about those "sub-standard foreign ways". You yourself have recognised this and have eloquently put the case as to why it is bullshit. Speaking for myself, I am from Australia, where the Lap Band surgery has been used for many more years than it has in the US and is generally considered to be far preferable to alternate surgeries, barring specific circumstances that make the alternatives more viable. Let me tell you, it is an uncomfortalble feeling being lumped in with "those Mexicans". I am fully prepared to accept your contention that the Mexican health care system and Mexican surgeons are NOT sub-standard. I believe this because I KNOW that my healthcare system and my surgeons are not sub-standard and I can recognise that no argument levelled at the Mexican system has so far differntiated between the two. "Foreign" is NOT equivalent to "sub-standard". Lastly, the OP has made a huge song and dance about how he is not looking for public support or endorsements but is simply "telling it like it is", yet he has consistantly used the language of media professionals in attempting to tell his story. When I first read the initial posts, I started to compose a reply that would list the MANY MANY times he alluded to "I have found a better way, I'll tell you more about this later". I gave up doing that cut and paste job when I saw how many other posters had already picked up on this stylistic telltale. I don't think it is necessary at this point in time, but I am prepared to do it if you think it might show something that perhaps you hadn't seen before. In conclusion, I applaud your open-mindedness and willingness to consider that this OP might have a valid point to make. Howsomever, I do not believe that this is the case - the OP is not just fulll of shit and worthy of the general contempt with which he is being regarded; he is also guilty of outright scaremongering amongst our new bandsters and potential bandsters and that is simply cruel and unforgiveable.
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Ok, I posted this in another thread but it is so relevant to this one, I think I'll do it again: I think many of us, including myself, have a huge problem understanding what "restriction" really means. I used to think it would mean that I would never be hungry or that I would feel FULL like I used to after a Christmas dinner pigout. I am coming to the realisation that that just isn't the case. I do feel hungy at times, some days more than others, but occasionally almost as ravenous as I used to feel pre-banding. However, if I really stop and think about it, I don't think I could squeeze in the gargantuan meals that I used to be able to manage. Also, I am much more able to stop at a "reasonable" quantity that I have ever previously been able to manage - sometimes in the past, once I started eating it was like I went into a shark feeding frenzy, and no matter how much I "wanted" to limit my quantities, I just couldn't stop until the pain of almost bursting physically stopped me. In my first few months of banding, I kept looking for that same pain signal, thinking that that was what it meant to be "full". I am gradually learning to recognise and accept a new physical sensation - that of "not being hungry". It is very new territory for me and I don't always find the boundaries. Quite often, I will go beyond them seeking the "full" feeling, but I have discovered that even when I do, the feeling isn't the same. For a a start, it is in a different location that previously felt. In the past, I felt that distended stomach "oh my god, I'm so STUFFED!" feeling that I was (let's face the truth) ADDICTED to, in the lower regions of my abdomen. Since banding, I am ashamed to admit it, but I have eaten until I felt I couldn't force in any more food - and the feeling is SO NOT the same. It is higher in my body, it doesn't come with that same sense of satisfaction and gratification, but it does come with the same pain and shame! Since discovering this new "bandster" sensation of being "full", I am coming to terms with the idea that I have to train my body into accepting DIFFERENT levels of satisfaction, because I will never achieve the same feeling I felt before. That's fine with me, because it also means I am learning how to listen to my body and actually hear the signal that says "I'm not hungry" - which is something I have NEVER heard before. In the past, all I have ever heard from my body is "I'm STARVING - FEED ME NOW!!" or "OH MY GOD, THAT HURTS - WHY DID I EAT SO MUCH?" There was no middle ground for me. Now I'm finding the middle ground and I'm LOVING IT! Good luck to all of you on your journeys.
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Puberty and obesity - possible link?
Fanny Adams replied to Fanny Adams's topic in General Weight Loss Surgery Discussions
So vote, luluc, and let's see how the stats turn out :cry_smile::crying: -
Puberty and obesity - possible link?
Fanny Adams replied to Fanny Adams's topic in General Weight Loss Surgery Discussions
Hehe - I am probably just sensitive to the words "I matured early" because I can relate to them. If it turns out that there is no correlation, then cool, it was a wild idea and no harm done; if it turns out that there is some statistical anomoly in the correlation, then I would start to wonder why the link hasn't been investigated before now. I seriously doubt I have struck upon a new revelation in obesity causes, but I have to say I am curious to see the results - of course the first post after mine WOULD be one to negate the whole premise - LOL!! :cry_smile: -
5 weeks, 3 fills, NO restriction! Is my band a dud?
Fanny Adams replied to LiseSeattle's topic in POST-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Yay for you - and now that you can actually feel it there, be careful not to push the limits further. It's no fun and really not good for you to be in a position where you PB all the time. I personally found that I had to re-learn the bandster rules all over again. When I first had the op, I tried all those rules about pencil eraser sized portions, chewing for at least 30 seconds, etc, but slowly got slack on them because I wasn't getting the pain inhibitor/reminder when I made a mistake. After my third fill, all of a sudden those rules weren't just academic anymore - they really meant something!! Good luck, have a great journey into bandland and don't forget - eat tiny bites, eat slowly and CHEW, CHEW, CHEW!! -
5 weeks, 3 fills, NO restriction! Is my band a dud?
Fanny Adams replied to LiseSeattle's topic in POST-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Fair enough comment - and the test would probably work just as well using just the meat sauce. However, one of the reasons I thought of that dish is bacause it would show up any restriction if it was there, due to the nature of pasta. Like I said, I'm not claiming it was a GOOD idea but sometimes we need to feel these things for ourselves to really believe them. -
OMG!! I forgot...FORGOT...to eat lunch yesterday!! Just like a slim person apparently does!! I've had friends tell me that they forgot to eat a meal before but I don't think I believed them, hehe. So yesterday afternoon, I'm waiting for the plane home and suddenly remembered that my lunch was still sitting in the fridge at work and I had completely forgotten to eat it - and I still wasn't hungry!! How cool is that??
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Hunger pangs and nicotine cravings
Fanny Adams replied to Fanny Adams's topic in LAP-BAND Surgery Forums
Update! That carton lasted the whole swing away - 22 days in total, to average 9 a day! Whoohoo! -
Here ya go, Ray: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f5/ticker-tutorial-pictures-41782/ PS: And welcome to LBT!!
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"Not to be a complete bitch, but I need this surgery more than someone who weighs 225. " Now THAT's an epic fail!! At not being a complete bitch, I mean, in case anyone was wondering...
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So Headhunter, are you in a Witness Protection Program yet? Is there somewhere we can send money to aid you in your valiant efforts to avoid the evil Bariatric Surgery Industry assassins? I sure would hate to see you fall victim to those heinous criminals and if there's anything I can do to help save you from their clutches, please let me know!
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5 weeks, 3 fills, NO restriction! Is my band a dud?
Fanny Adams replied to LiseSeattle's topic in POST-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
I know what you mean about having to learn to listen to our bodies but it is a complex process and it takes months before it really sinks in. I'm over 4 months out and only just now beginning to get the hang of it. I think that, no matter how much we "know" that it isn't a miracle cure and that it "is only a tool", deep down we are all still secretly hoping for that miracle. We don't really know what the signals feel like and it takes time to learn the subtle sensations. As an experiment, this idea was just to try to help someone to feel the limits of the band and get some hope that it is working at some level. I definitely don't recommend it as a full time eating plan! But feeling "full" and feeling "not hungry" are different sensations after banding and maybe it could help someone to recognise those new feelings. -
5 weeks, 3 fills, NO restriction! Is my band a dud?
Fanny Adams replied to LiseSeattle's topic in POST-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Okay, I'm going to put an idea out here but before I do, let me first state that I DON'T know if it is a good one and it might actually be a very bad one, so before anyone tries it, have a good hard think about how you would do it. I would also recommend waiting after you read it to see how many long term bandsters tell me it's stupid or even dangerous - and if they do, don't try it! My idea is this: For those people who have had 2-3 fills and feel that they don't have ANY restriction at all, try cooking up a really big pot of spaghetti bolognaise meat sauce and mix it with some Pasta (eg elbow pasta). Make it a really good one, high grade minced beef and no oil in the cooking. If you use a good recipe, this should be less than 300 cal per cup, so one night's "blow out" on this won't be utterly disastrous. Take a measuring cup and measure out exactly one cup into a bowl. Sit down and eat it slowly and carefully following bandster rules for chewing. Wait for at least 15 minutes. Go back and get another cup full. Eat that slowly and carefully. Wait 15 minutes. Listen to your body. You might not be full yet, but are you still HUNGRY? If you are, go back and do it a third time. If necessary do it a fourth or more times. Try to find that spot where your body is no longer telling you that it is hungry. I think you'll find that you reach it at about 2-3 cups at most. I know in pre-banding days, I could EASILY eat 4-5 cups of this at my first sitting and about an hour later could tackle another cup or two for "seconds". After my first fill, however, I would eat one cup and still be hungry and think "I don't have restriction yet!" so I'd eat a second cupful. I felt more satisfied then but still didn't feel FULL like I used to. I stopped at that point, because I COULD control the hunger by then and COULD stop, but I probably could have squeezed in a third cup if I had tried. Pre-banding days and there's no way I could have stopped. If I was trying to diet and NOT eat 4-5 cups, no matter how much I promised myself that I'd be good, I'd go back to the pot and pick at it for the rest of the night till it was all gone I absolutely could not do that after even the first fill and now (after 3), the one cup is my limit. If you can still easily down 4-5 cups of spag bol & pasta after 3 fills, then yes, you are probably not feeling any restriction and you might have to wait for several more before you get there. However, I'm betting that you will find that you aren't hungry after only 2 cups and are probably feeling quite full after 3-4 at most. The band IS giving you SOME measure of restriction, even if it isn't as much as you were expecting. You just have to learn to listen to it and not seek that "stuffed full till it hurts and I can't move" sensation. That was BLOODY HARD for me to accept and to give up, because I was ADDICTED to that pain sensation - weird, I know, but I am realising this truth now. Now I would NOT recommend doing this until AT LEAST 4 weeks after surgery. I know we all get worried that we might "stretch our pouch" but I don't think this can happen in one night of pushing the limits. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND taking this as slowly and carefully as you can so that you don't do yourself any damage. However, I think it would be a worthwhile experiment to do for just one night because I think it would "prove" to you in your own minds that the band really is doing it's job and that you WILL get to the sweetspot eventually. Ok, it might not be making you satisfied on half a cup yet, but if the first fill gets you down from 5 to 3 cups and the second fill gets you down to 2 cups, etc, at least you know it's doing SOMETHING. Like I said - it's just an idea and it might be a horrible one, but perhaps worth pondering at least... If the long term bandsters think this is utterly stupid, please say so, coz I really don't know but it makes sense to me. -
Can anyone feel the tube leading to Port?
Fanny Adams replied to Luscious's topic in POST-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Interesting! I'll have to ask my doctor about this, because I can feel something similar. I can feel my port just about any time that I am lying down but I can only feel this when I am lying on my right side, letting my stomach muscles fully relax and my belly kind of spilling forwards. I always thought it was the band itself but it is exactly where you describe it - about 2 inches higher than the port and slightly to the left for me - so maybe it is the tube I'm feeling? -
I love this! Ahahahahahahaha!!! Where's James Bond when you need him? Those evil Bariatric Surgery Industry assassins could be after any of us!!! Oh noes!!! *quivers* I admit, I haven't read past the first page of that yet (and I'm planning to do so right now), but already my alarm bells are ringing over this statement: This sounds very much like the guy has a hidden agenda that he plans to reveal later (selling some new diet plan perhaps?) I will be interested to read the rest of the thread and find out if I was right in my guess...
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Monster In My Belly!
Fanny Adams replied to JerseyGirl2u's topic in PRE-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Heheh - I know how you feel! I don't know if it is the same for everyone, but for me it settled down after about 6-8 weeks out from the op. I'm just over 4 months out now and, while it growls now and then, it's not anything like it was in the first several weeks. I tried to take the attitude that every time it growled, it was my band telling me it was hard at work and I would smile thinking of where I was hoping to be one day. Of course, my work doesn't require me to be in meetings with lots of people very often, so that's easy for me to say :confused: -
Quoted For Truth!
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I used one about 5 years ago and lost 20kg in only 4 months (which is more than I've lost with the band, haha!). It was in Australia, though, so I don't know if you have the same company there (ours is quite possibly a subsidiary or franchise of a US company). Here, they are called Lite-n-Easy and I was quite impressed with them. You could order your food and pay online, there were always 2 choices for Breakfast and 2 for lunch, different on each day, and about 40-50 choices for evening meals. They would changed the menu every season, so the variety was good. The food quality was WAY better than anything Jenny Craig or Lean Cuisine put out. The only issues I had with it were the packaging (every single item was individually wrapped and then bagged into meals, generating HUGE amounts of plastic) and that it didn't teach good eating habits, and I gained the weight back when I stopped ordering the food. I also tended not to eat all of the food delivered so accumulated heaps of leftovers of bits I didn't like much :confused: Still - in the short term, it was a good option. Expensive compared to cooking for yourself, but really convenient and very easy.
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My guess is that we tend to judge whether or not we at our sweetspot by how we feel when we are at our hungriest. For many, this is at night. When we put ourselves on a standard meal plan and aim for say 1200 calories a day, we have to force ourselves to eat the 600 cal throughout the day, taking them in in soft foods and liquids if we have to, because we are too tight for solid food. When it comes to night time, we have no problem with the 600 cal meal and still feel hungry afterwards. Because we feel really hungry then, we say to ourselves "make it tighter, make it tighter!" as though we were expecting NEVER to feel hungry at all. We get another fill, and then wonder why we are having even more problems with PBing and sliming in the day time, but still don't feel we are at our sweetspot, because of how we feel at night. If instead, we listened to our bodies and didn't worry about the 600 cal throughout the day (unless we felt hungry then!), we would be able to eat a much bigger meal at night, maybe even a late night snack, and still not go over our target of 1200 for the day. We would feel satisfied at the end of the day, and not have to struggle with hunger at night OR feeling too tight in the morning. I think the only problem would come with this if you found yourself eating nothing throughout the day AND struggling to get in over 600 cals in the afternoons and evening. If that was happening, then you would probably be too tight and need a slight unfill. On the other hand, if you are easily eating a solid breakfast, a solid lunch and a solid dinner and STILL feeling hungry at night, then yes, another fill could be the answer. I'm not saying this is how everyone works. Quite often I am hungry in the mornings, so I eat a solid breakfast (poached egg, baked Beans & mushrooms usually - about 250 calories). I then eat a lot of fibrous veges for lunch (eg carrots, celery, etc) and some chicken. By the time dinner comes around, I am only just starting to feel hungry again and often leave half of my small child's plate. Other days it doesn't work like that and I skip breakfast and make up for it in the evening when I'm hungry. My personal opinion is that we should be less rigid about expecting our bodies to behave the same way every day. There are so many influences - stress, time of month, salt/water intakes, different activities - that we are unlikely ever to have exactly the same physiological reactions every day. Just go with the flow for a while and learn to LISTEN to our bodies. I'm giving that approach a bash, anyway - wish me luck with it! Good luck to all of you that are trying to work out the intricacies of living with this wonderful tool :confused: