Jachut

Ah, Gracie, you're my own personal fan club, lol! My everyday diet is a totally and absolutely normal diet, including all foods. Nobody would ever know I had been banded, nor would they think I was on a diet, ate weird or anything. They might think I was disciplined and a bit of a health nut becuase I can knock back that second bit of cake. I eat Protein, carbs, mostly healthy food, a little bit of junk now and then, I like a glass of wine at night. I am not on a "diet", I didnt lose weight on a "diet" and I will never go on a "diet" again. I like running, i do it for 45 minutes most days of the week. Its not a chore, its a pleasurable activity that gives me headspace, time to download the days' mental stuff, and makes me feel great about myself. I think good skin is 99% genetics and that's it. You are either lucky or you arent, nothing you do is going to change that. But I'd still rather be where I am now even if it meant a tummy tuck than where I was.

Its fascinating isnt it? I need to be a very low BMI and even then I'm STILL jiggly, although I'm very fit and toned underneath. If nature blessed me a bit more, I've got the sort of body that if I could get it thin enough I could model (would need a bag over my head, lol) - if I was still 18! I look overweight VERY quickly and at quite a low weight. People have gotten nasty and called me anorexic on here (c'mon! 150 at 5ft 10 anorexic?) but honestly, I could still lose 20 lb and not be alarmingly thin. I've got loads to lose on my butt! I saw a woman the other day and I couldnt stop staring, she was just so curvy. Utterly perfect curvy, flat stomach, perfect, rounded breasts, but curves in ALL the right places, the type of body that is not fashionable but that I bet men drool over. I could never in a gazillion years be like that, the minute I put on the weight to HAVE curves, it just all hangs in rolls. Yet, I'm betting we would have been around the same size. She was a lot more "solid" than me being several inches shorter but ever so much more shapely. And the biatch didnt jiggle!

Doesnt look like a lot to me, I think you're doing fine. I lost easily and well on about 1500 calories a day and I maintain on about 1800 so my daily list would look HUGE to most people. But I firmly believe that a) I was a bit lucky, with the amount I ate, to only get to a BMI of 35, I must have a pretty good metabolism, and because I eat well, varied and enough and I run daily, I have kept my body's furnace going rather than slowing down and have absolutely no need to exist on puny amounts like 800 calories a day. People have said to me, oh, you eat almost normally (I eat like a normal person with a smallish appetite) why do you need a band. The band keeps me from wanting to eat 3000 calories a day, which is about where I was at - AND that was mainly healthy food, so you can imagine what sort of volume it was. My dinner plate used to be a large sized plate piled high.

I drink and eat together all the time, and always have done. I dont drink a LOT, but I'll have a sip of wine or coffee in between bites, depending what meal of the day it is, lol, dont have wine at Breakfast. It never ever made a difference to me how full I felt or how full I stayed, but at this restriction, I couldnt gulp a drink or drink a lot with food. I've also never done Protein first, becuase that's not a rule here in Australia. I eat carbs, shock, horror, in fact I have a diet based more on carbs than protein. I limit animal foods, saturated fat etc, so I dont eat a lot of meat, I'd never eat more than an egg or two in a week and I dont consider cheese a staple food, its more of a condiment due to its fat and salt content. I think lunch meats are digustingly full of chemicals and additives and a good way to give yourself a brain tumour or some equally dire outcome. I also limit sugar and white carbs, but if I'm going to indulge, I eat the real sugar version, I dont eat artificial sweeteners. Carbonation isnt really an issue for me, since apart from the occasional champagne, I dont drink anything like Coke etc. Yuck. Dissolves your bones and wrecks your kidneys. Lol, bit paranoid arent it? But I eat as much fruit, vegies, wholegrains and cereals as I fancy. Coffee is also not a rule for me, but it if was banned, its a rule I'd break. apart from the drinking issue, I follow what I was advised to do, but compared to the rules you guys have, I'm breaking all YOUR rules.

Ports can and do flip, its not unusual, if they come unstitched. As to sticking out, well now I'm at a low weight, mine is visible when I'm standing up as a round lump, let alone when I am laying down. Its not so ugly that i cant wear a bikini, but its definitely there. I'm lucky not to have a lot of loose skin, but if I *did* have a tummy tuck and reduce the small amount that's there, it would stand out really really obviously. But better than being fat and lumpy in my opinion.

At five foot ten, and 150lb I wear a US 8 to 10, depending on the item. I can wear size 6 tops and jackets. At 200 lb I was wearing a 12 to 14 and at 245 I was a good size 16-18. Everyone's different, I seem to be quite "large", I've got pretty wide hip bones I think.

I have a 4cc band, banded December 05. Its always worked well for me, I lost easily, and more importantly, I believe I found and kept good restriction WAY more easily than people with the larger capacity bands seem to. Like Cleo's Mom has pointed out, these bands only need tiny fills - my final ones were 0.1cc. I think I went 1 cc, 0.5 cc, 0.3 cc and then a couple of 0.1's over a three year period (had some small adjustments after hitting goal weight). When i was banded, nearly everyone in Australia was getting 4cc bands, but there was sizes 9.75cm and 10 cm (the circumference). I got a 9.75 because the surgeon said at a BMI of 35, that would be best, I simply didnt have as much internal fat to lose, and he felt the 10 would become loose for me and require a lot more adjusting. But yes, they're all the same diametre, the actual capacity of them doesnt affect the size in the end, but it can be harder to get good restriction.

My doctor was quite upfront about the fact that although the band itself is designed to, and probably will last forever in your body, the balloon part probably wont. If you get banded at say 20, then it is virtually a given that you will need to be rebanded at some point in time. Its a mechanical device with a changeable part that will probably wear out. But they really just dont know! I personally find it very strange that some people have posted that they are planning banding, and also planning and saving for a mountain of cosmetic surgery afterwards and then suddenly pull up short on this issue. They say "whoa, I might need MORE surgery? This may not be the procedure for me". Um, forgive me but in amongst tummy tucks, gall bladder removals, breast reconstructions and face lifts, who *really* is going to worry about a 40 minute operation 15 years down the track to replace something that wore out? Now, as to complications such as erosion, slippage and other evils such as cronic reflux, I dont think that's a "when" issue at all, its definitely an "if". But I think you need to be realistic that complication rates with the band are higher than what you're led to believe, becuase you must work with a band and many many people do that terribly! And then some people's bodies just dont handle bands well. Those complications dont tend to be reported, the figures you read are always slippage and erosion ones. Do your research and make the decision based on what YOU believe, dont let what is probably biased and disillusioned negativity sway you.

I really worried about this and kept thinking I can do it myself. Then I realised, I was giving myself an "out" (I'm banded, not sleeved) - no band, then there was always the ability to overeat. THEN I realised, if I was going to lose weight and keep it off, I could never ever ever eat the way I was eating again. Ever. Either way, it had to stop. Weight loss surgery didnt seem so scary after I'd faced that fact. Really faced it. And then, once I was banded, I felt satisfied after smaller amounts of food. I didnt eat till I was utterly stuffed that often before banding, but I got the same feelings of satisfaction on 1/3 of the volume of food. So I've never felt, oh, I want to eat but I cant. And I dont think an occasional treat is a bad thing anyway. So if I really want something, i just have it.

One foot in front of the other is the only place to start. I'd just make a pact with yourself to do a gentle half hour walk five days a week. Progress SLOWLY. Dont push yourself past your comfort zone, pay attention to your knees, and see how they go and weigh up whether you need to mix walking up with something else like swimming. Give yourself a couple of months for that to become a habit before you think about harder exercise or getting really fit. I could walk, i was quite fit, but the thought of running was just as daunting, only I had a burning desire to do it, so that helped. But I just went out and did what I could, and gradually built on it. There really is no magic, its small steps and consistency. Running has taught me one of the most valuable lessons I've ever learned, honestly, and that's just the value of small steps and consistent work and the amazing things it can achieve over time. From little things, big things grow!

With walking (and runnning for that matter) the time isnt so important as the effort you're putting in. If you're getting out of breath and raising a sweat, then the intensity is right to increase your fitness, even if you only covered 1 mile inthat time! when its easy and you start getting faster, its time to push a bit harder.

Not quite, I've woken up coughing badly precisely once in four years and occasionally, when I go to bed I find it hard to fall asleep becuase I'm aware my pouch is still full and I worry about reflux happening in my sleep - it never ever has apart from the one coughing episode. If its occurring with any regularlity its a problem, as its quite dangerous, you can have nasty complications from inhaling stomach contents. But it may simply be a matter of being a little too tight. However, ever since being banded, although I've never been a reflux-y person, I certainly dont push it by eating and then standing on my head! Banding does make you a little less able to eat and then jump around or lie down or whatever, simply becuase food is sitting high up in there. Eating and drinking close to bed isnt a really good practice, and if what you've experienced is due to things like that and you can easily manage it, then I wouldnt be TOO worried. But do look honestly at an unfill if you think at allt hat you may be a bit tight.

Calories. I've never ever been a low carb dieter, and whilst I appreciate the theory behind low carb eating, I think the practical application of it for real people leads to a truly horrible diet. I've eaten good carbs the entire way through my journey and never limited to them, so for me, its calories that matter. I dont actually count those either though - although just roughly calculating is a daily habit. I lost well on about 1500 a day.

Yes, I do but its within the same clinic, all the doctors work for the same group of surgeons.

I think its more to do with your particular genetics than it is to do with age. I've seen bellies completely ruined by pregnancy that belong to women in their early 20's and ones that bounce back like mine did when I was 35. Yet my boobs are a train wreck, but they were saggy when I was normal weight in my teens, so that was always likely. It can all be fixed up later, truly, the first thing to focus on is getting the weight off.

Well, it its not one thing its another. Personally I wouldnt ingest artificially sweetened products day in day out in that quantity, it would freak me out. But I drink a glass of wine most nights and WAY too much coffee and I dont worry about THAT, so its just a matter of not having too many bad habits I guess. I dont like plain Water a lot except if I've just run, so I do drink cordial occasionally, but its occasional enough that I drink full sugar. I'm a bit paranoid about artificial sweeteners.

Well, I was a sweet tooth and still am but have been very successful with the band. I have simply learned how to eat normally, and eat sweet things only occasionally. I lost steadily and well, WAY past the 60% of excess weight that the average person loses, to lose about 120% of my excess weight. I eat ALL foods in small portions and i run for 45 minutes a day. I've kept all the weight off and never regained more than 4lb which happened when I thought I might have a small unfill - didnt figure i needed as much fill for maintenance. I had a small regain of 4lb and then that levelled off. I've maintained for about 2 years now, and I do very occasionally commit carbicide and go on days long binges of eating nothing healthy, occasionally before my period I just go off the rails totally. But the portion size remains small and i keep running daily and I never ever gain weight. I think the band CAN work for sweet lovers. I just choose not to eat them like I used to but if I"m going to pig out, its still the same foods it always was.

Me too. I thoroughly enjoyed every stage and every new low. I put a new photocard in the digital frame the other day and it popped up a picture of me at about 200lb and I nearly DIED. I was enormous! And that was halfway to goal, lol. But in the photo, I'm wearing the first pair of jeans from a normal store, and a size 16 (your 12-14) top and I felt fantastic. I was in a hurry too, but I wasnt focussed on the end quite so much, and I'm glad coz now I look back on that 2 years as an incredibly exciting and happy time. And you know, after that point my loss slowed right down and it took me about 18 months to lose the same amount as I'd lost in the first six. But that's a good thing, there's a whole head journey thing you ahve to go to to get to self acceptance, you'll probably find the same when you get near goal and start feeling that you're still fat, you've got skin, you're jiggly, you look older in the face, you dont look at ALL like you thought you would. Whoa, weight loss doesnt make you look perfect? You need the time to get your head round all that and have it catch up with your body, so dont wish away the time, its important.

You need to find a mystic tan booth - they're completely automatic. There's nobody spraying you. I've found it gives great results too, perfectly even. I'm saving money all winter, so that I can have one every week this summer! Mystic is the only one in Australia, but I think California Tan has them too? Google it. If I'm going to have a spray tan, I want it all over, just becuase but really, if its for a wedding and you dont have time to get to an auto booth, you could wear shorts and a tank top and justs slip the straps off your shoulders - get your arms, legs, chest and face done, the bits that show and not expose yourself at all.

Yes, I thought I was aging better than I really am too. You get over it, but its hard to come to terms with the fact that losing weight doesnt make you perfect. As to the rest of what you said, you sound very tight - why on earth would you keep getting fills if you're finding there's lots of foods you can no longer eat?

I wish, I left my libido back somewhere in 1995 after my first baby, sigh. I dont see it as a problem. Your husband is happy. Neither of you plans on acting out the fantasies in real life. Its not interfering so much in your daily life that you dont have time to do anything else. It sounds more like its just a new experience for you, more so than a real problem. Enjoy it.

Spot reducing isnt possible unfortunately, but cardio cardio cardio is the way to lose stomach fat. Particularly interval style workouts where you go really HARD for a minute, then recover and alternate. (have a look at www.cardiocoach.com). Eventually, your stomach will shrink but your proportions are what they are and if you tend to be apple shaped with relatively larger abdomen and thinner legs, you always will be, although that wont stop you looking great! Just like I have the opposite, things that fit my bum and thighs are gappy round the waist with inches to spare.

I buy organic :thumbup:

Weight management is only about calories in v calories out, obviously alchohol contributed to his daily intake of calories but he also eats too much for his energy needs. Simple. Regardless of what somenone else can eat, we all know those people who do no exercise and eat like a horse and are skinny, your own personal balance is what you have to find. You could gain weight eating apples if you ate enough of them and you can lose weight eating nothing but cream cakes. Health and weight loss are not necessarily strongly related. energy in v energy out is all it is.

Gallbladder attacks often come with gas and often you will notice your stools are different - pale maybe, you could have diarrhoea etc. then again, i suspect my gallbladder has been giving me a nudge or two lately and i've had no gas. Its different for everyone. The only thing that makes me think it might have just been gas for you is that you could bend over and make it go away. The pain I've been having, you do instinctively curl around abdominal pain as it tends to relieve it but NOTHING will make it abate until it suddently goes away on its own.