Jachut

Sometimes wine does this to me - most particularly on an empty stomach. And the other thing that does it is potato chips!

My health hadnt really suffered yet, well not in ways I knew about. I got to a BMI of 35 and I guess bloodwork would have shown evidence of bad diet, I wasnt fit, etc but overall, I was healthy. However, I was VERY concerned with future health and I had really begun to realise how quickly I was going to get old as I entered my 40's. I really did this as prevention and insurance for a healthy and long life in the future. But I have to be completely honest and I voted that way - my most immediate concern was I hated the way I looked. This was VERY much a cosmetic surgery for me. I dont see it as much different to having a boob job or major body reconstruction. Feeling good about myself has given me a life that I'd only ever experienced from the sidelines before. I had what mattered and was happy, but this is what was missing.

Hehehe, my BIL and SIL just arrived home from 2 and a half years in Canada, home to sunny Melbourne. Its our long holidays right now, we spent the day with them yesterday at the beach, a balmy 30 degree day - oh, sorry, that's 30 degrees CELCIUS, up around 90 or so, glorious. We're all brown, healthy, and relaxed. Dont want to rub it in or anything. Coz it will be winter here mid year. When it gets down to oh, maybe 10 degrees celcius on a cold day! They loved Canada for many reasons but there was 2 things that did their heads in, the freezing climate and the lack of decent coffee. We've got enough of our own hot air of other varieties, so no change there.

I'm not sensitive over "fat descrimination" and I must say sometimes on here when people are upset about something someone's done or said, i dont get it. I think, but you ARE fat, is someone supposed to pretend you're not? But THAT is downright offensive.

Same thing happened to me, within 3 days of my surgery, all 3 kids were puking. It started with a birthday party and about five hotdogs unloaded in the shower, lol. I turn into a germ freak (which I'm not normally). I dont touch ANYTHING. Fifty cans of glen 20 round the house, spray everything before I sit on it, in it, etc, spray toilets, light switches, use gloves to handle laundry, then bleach the washing machine doors, touch pad etc, bleach the entire toilet after every vomit, use about 600 pairs of disposable gloves throughout the process. Oh and panic that you had them on your lap kissing them only two days ago, obsess over every twinge in your body, convince yourself you're feeling sick etc. I also keep anti nausea medication to hand. We've had about four bouts of this over the four years and I've not caught it once. I'm returning to teaching this year though, ugh. Lets see how I go.

I wouldnt change a thing. I got a band to stop dieting forever. I got a band so i could never count calories again, never fuss over fat or Protein, so that I could eat a completely normal balanced diet, only in reasonable portions. I fully expected that I would eat better some days than others, and that's true, and I knew that healthy eating is key to losing weight but that is different to *dieting*. I dont diet and never will again. I was prepared to work hard though, to sort through all my head issues, what drives me to eat the wrong things, and to work out when it is OK to eat those things and when youre eating them for the wrong reasons. I was also more than prepared to exercise hard - it was one of my major dreams and goals. It all worked out that way for me, luckily. Because of the type and amount of exercise I do, my calorie needs are fairly high and this eating approach works for me. So there's nothing I would change. I dont just feel thin these days, I no longer feel like I'm a fat person in remission, I feel cured.

Oh gosh, we've ALL thought of that! And wanted to do it! But I cant believe a doctor would encourage you to play around with your band in that way! Its NOT as simple as unfilling and filling as the whim takes you, there's been so many posts with people having trouble getting back to good restriction, they start a fill/unfill cycle bouncing between under and overfilled, its just a slippery slope to trouble and any decent doctor would know that. Unfilling to go overseas is one thing - especially if you risk problems in a foreign country, but for one meal? You're right to have declined. As to the other issue, I definitely ahve a few days of appalling eating before my period arrives. To be honest, i dont fight it, I go with it. My habits are healthy 90% of the time and I believe that's what counts, what's more, my stable and health weight proves that that's what counts. Actually any time I really get a craving I have a little of what I fancy. In any given day, 90% of what I eat will be healthy, but I dont cut out anything or deny myself totally and I believe that enables me to eat well overall. So the days I *truly* want chocolate for Breakfast and a muffin for lunch, I do it. If its just a passing thought, I dont but I find my rabid interest in those foods dissipates like magic once my period starts.

I've got a band and I received no rules on Protein, Water OR calories. Just a healthy diet, according to what your stomach can comfortably take. For me, that balance came at about 1500 calories a day. I easily lost 100lb on that, never counting anything, other than approximately toting calories in my head - because we ALL probably know the calories in everything after a lifetime of dieting! I eat about 1800 to 2000 to maintain my weight.

i dont get why doctors say this. No matter what you do, how perfectly you eat, the exact balance of exercise you achieve, you will lose some muscle mass as you lose weight. A lot of your mass is in your large muscles, which support your body - the hips, thighs, glutes. Your body needs big muscles to support your large weight, but as the weight drops, the work the body does to maintain itself is less and even though you're exercising, you do lose muscle mass. What you want to achieve at the end is a good fat to muscle ratio, not just a weight. You can be light and too fat. Just as you can be heavy and lean. But you wont keep your entire current muscle mass because you get lighter, even the most weighy exercises are easier for your body. So you may indeed get to that lower weight. There's as lot of stuff out there about losign weight and keeping muscle and that is the goal. But its misleading - because you do lose some.

the more exercise the better, as long as you're not running yourself into the ground. Think of the evening workout as just something to get the blood moving again and burn a few calories - active leisure rather than working out. So if you put a lot of effort into your morning workout, then treat it as your main one and dont utterly exhaust yourself at night. Whilst I dont workout twice a day, I do run or do something strenous nearly every day and I dont hesitate to do stuff like digging in the garden, walking, swimming etc on top of that, but I think of it as leisure and housework not exercise. Doesnt matter, it burns calories and is not sitting on your butt eating. Do take some rest days though.

I'm 5ft 10 and 150 which was pretty much my goal weight (would love to be 145, just cant seem to get there). Its not overweight. but I'm not particularly thin, bony, or scrawny, just healthy. I still have a pretty good cover of flesh. So I guess we all have different body types, but at 5ft 1, you're very short and I just cant envisage how you'd look "malnourished" at 130. That's a very healthy weight. I think its more that your perception skews as you get heavier (and everyone around us does too!) People are so big these days that normal weight people can look very skinny by comarison. That's just my opinin of course, and shouldnt matter to you and your goals, but it just shows that its a matter of your perception, not necessarily reality. Why not go for your original goal and see how you go from there? To just be overweight, on the one hand, you've eliminated the major health risks of obesity by the time you reach that goal, but on the other, why have surgery to settle for that? Surgery is the on thing that enables people to move from mediocre results to really great ones. But if you think you look fabulous at 145-150, you're the one whose opinion counts and as long as you're happy you can count yourself as very successful!

Mine's in about the same spot as yours. It does show. But not badly. Luckily???? one of my few residual pockets of loose skin is on my upper belly, from pregnancy I'm guessing as i was never particularly fat there, and it does hide it somewhat, but its just a vague lump, it only stands out sharply if I put my arms over my head and stretch out. The scar has faded but is visible, the other four scars are invisible now. I feel more than comfortable putting on a bikini and showing my stomach, even though it shows, its not bad. If I had a tummy tuck and lost that little bit of skin thoguh, it would be very visible. But to me, that's still better than the what I used to look like.

An egg muffin might be a healthy choice if you make it at home, with a wholegrain muffin, a dry fried free range egg and as fat free as possible bacon, probably hold the cheese as you've got enough saturated fat there already. Made from McDonalds, not so much. Not an every day food because of the crappy white sugary bread and that scary orange plastic cheese, but absolutely anything can fit into a healthy diet in moderation. But it makes me laugh, arguments over slider foods. How can anyone insist somethign IS a slider food? It absolutely depends on how it reacts with you. Personally, cereal fills me and sticks with me and so does Soup. The liquid element doesnt seem to worry me or make me hungry. And full of wholegrains, fibre, and valuable nutrients, and soup especially full of vegies (if you dont eat canned crap). So who the fig cares? If you want cereal enjoy it. believe it or not, there's about a million ways and diet combinations that work to lose weight because at the end of the day calories are what matter.

I have some Protein at lunch and dinner, I tend to eat things like muesli for Breakfast, but there's protein in milk etc. To be honest, I dont focus on protein at all. I wouldnt have a clue how much of it I eat most days. We dont do it that way in Australia. I know its an important food group and I include it, but basically, I exercise a LOT and hard, and I can eat 1800 calories a day to maintain my weight now, lost easily on 1500. So I can eat enough to not need to supplement anything. If anything, I'm the opposite. I worry about vegies and fruit and believe them equally important as protein, so I dont do protein first. I do everything equal.

Freshstart, that's not normal. I'm not talking about that kind of pain. There's got to be a reason for what you're experiencing.

Well, I guess its how you look at it. I'm quite pleased by a really good workout that leaves me unable to sit on the toilet! I love that. It means I've really torn down some muscle that has to be built up again. but to answer your question, that does go away, because it would take something incredible to do that to me in the normal course of events. I remember how tiring exercise was, I used to start and stop too because I'd be so tired that I couldnt function for the rest of the day. And I wasnt even THAT fat or unfit. But over time, it becomes so that an hour's hard run GIVES me energy. You just have to push through that. Its the only way. Muscle stiffness wont kill you and you can overcome tiredness. As long as you're not trying to do something ridiculously too avanced for your fitness level. The other thing I find is that if I do things that make certain muscles sore - say situps, you know how you can strain your neck and throat muscles trying to keep your head up? That truly makes me feel like I'm getting sick because it feels like glands/sore throat and it does give me a headache too. Is that the type of pain you're talking about though? Real pain, as in injury, shouldnt be ignored. And if your knees, hips etc are screaming at weight bearing exercise, then its best to stick to Water stuff and such until you're lighter. But muscle stiffness goes away.

For sure - every "before" photo you look at of tummy tucks, there's a LOT of fat in the pannus. I've only seen a true excess skin pannus once or twice and its very very thin.

Well, that sounds awfully like my routine and I dont have significant loose skin after 100lb loss - not that I'm tight as a drum either! To be honest, its just the luck of the draw. I could say that running, circuit training and bootcamp prevents loose skin - becuase that's my experience. But I dont really think it was the exercise so much as choosing the right parents.

Egg mcmuffin? that's very strange advice!

I've been at goal for a couple of years now, so I guess I'd have something to add. In a typical day: breakfast: some kind of Cereal (oatmeal or muesli usually) with some kind of pureed fruit and perhaps a dollop of greek yogurt and or a bit of skim milk OR A piece of wholegrain toast, or similar (english muffin, a crumpet, whatever), with a bit of butter and spread - Peanut Butter, jam or vegemite occasionally on a weekend scrambled eggs, maybe some bacon (not a big fan of cooked breakfasts) or pancakes once in a blue moon Lunch: some sort of salad - leafy greens, carrot, mushroom, tomato, cucumber, avocado, a Protein like tuna or chicken, maybe I'd have that in a sandwich, but generally eat only half the sandwich if I'm having something out - sushi, a fancier salad, a kebab and very occasionally i"ll have something like a meat pie (cant eat it all) dinner: meat and 3 veg usually - barbecued, roasted or grilled chicken, steak, lamb cutlets, lamb chops. dont eat a lot of pork but occasionally roast a leg, usually a starch (brown rice, half a potato maybe) and a couple of different vegies - steamed or as a salad. We also eat a bit of Pasta, some fish, make things like pizzas. For Snacks, I might eat some fruit, or maybe a cookie, I like a glass of wine maybe 3 nights of the week. coffee and tea I drink plain - just brewed coffee with a dash of skim milk, the occasional latte or cappucino although in australia those arent calorific concoctions, just espresso and skim milk. I dont really eat Desserts, nor chocolate, lollies, chips and such. I drink Water, never have soft drinks or juice. A totally normal diet. Portion sizes are what I'd call "small normal" meaning I dont eat a lot but I dont survive on half a cup at a time either. A deck of playing cards is probably a good way to describe it. Cereal serves are half a cup and when I eat bread, a slice is all I'd manage. Can eat about half a sandwich at a time. I never have Protein shakes or bars. I run, do boot camp and circuit training five or six days a week.

Or it might not be anything more than generalised difficulty in digesting them. "Protein farts" are a well recognised phenomenon. I cant handle protein shakes and bars, they really do bloat me up, give me intestinal pain and make me miserable (and very smelly to be around). Google it, you'll see its not at all uncommon. It might also be the fact that they're all awfully sweet, and chock full of artificial sweeteners usually. And ingesting a lot of artificial sweetener is notorious for causing diarrhoea. For myself, I just dont eat/drink them. Its entirely posible to lose weight, be healthy and keep your muscle without ingesting protein shakes.

I actually never saw myself as fat. I knew it on some level but usually I managed to look, without actually seeing. Which is why I always felt shattered when I saw a picture. As I lost weight, I gradually grew to look more and more like what I saw in my head. Now the pictures almost match, although I think I've gone the other way and imagine myself fatter than what I am.

I cant tolerate having my entire abdomen encased, it makes me feel ill. So for the occasional special slinky dress, I like the bike short type things. I only need a normal waist as my stomach is flat, if any lumps or bumps are going to show, it will be the saddlebags. However, even though I have thin legs, I notice that anything with a "band" will show a line there, you've got to be careful with the edging on them.