Jachut

Easily my biggest challenge throughout this journey has been to stay on regular, healthy but hard to eat foods and not live on Cookies and chocolate. But staying on regular food is what makes the band work. Its just so great not worrying about gaining though! Yes you have to work to lose but I find can go on holidays or it can be Christmas or whatever and I just no longer have that fear that 10lb will come to visit and not leave.

Lol, the point though isnt to make someone feel bad coz they dont workout quite at that level. I've been at this a few years now. Its more that you can get in quality workouts that involve your kids.

I agree with you. I dont have issues, I dont have voids that I eat to fill. I just like eating and I do it if I'm bored. I definitely do it to cope with stress. I guess that qualifies as "emotional eating" to some, but I agree that I dont have some huge personality defect or gap in my life or terrible feelings that I'm trying to quiet with food. I mean, if you've got nothing better to do, you're not busy and you can manage a nice half hour on the computer with a cuppa, why NOT have a few Cookies as well? The way I see it, its just not that freaking complicated for me. I dont need a therapist! I dont even believe this is a problem only the overweight have. I know PLENTY of thin people who eat when they're not hungry for all kinds of reasons too. To Celebrate, to fill in some time, because its lunchtime now and they wont be able to eat if they dont eat now and suddenly get hungry at 3pm. I dont need to be regressed to a past life to find out I lived through the Irish Potato Famine and have been emotionally scarred through several lifetimes since. I dont like cookies just a bit too much coz my cat got run over when I was four either. No disresepct meant to those who DO have real issues they're working on. It's just some of us just plain dont. We just like food.

On the other hand, I personally find good carbs like wholegrain bread have the air and bulk in them to really FILL my stomach and provide that satiety which lasts. To get full on Protein can take me 300 calories, to get full on a combo of wholegrain bread, vegetables and protein about 150 calories. Protein is energy and fat dense generally, so when you dont have the restriction to get full on a small amount, focussing on it can REALLY hamper your weight loss - I mean 2 eggs for Breakfast is one thing but if you're needing 3 or 4, you're starting to have to worry about the saturated fat and calories, when one piece of dry wholegrain toast with one poached egg would do the trick far easier. I guess it comes down to if you havent got that really good restriction yet, resort to the old dieter's trick of volume foods - high Water and air content - bread, fruit and vegetables because you will have to eat way too much chicken, meat, eggs or cheese to fill yourself. I always have and always will include high quality wholegrain carbs as a part of my meal and I lost weight whilst not exactly super fast, very steadily and easily. I'm not talking about making your entire meal carbs mind you becuase that will hit your bloodstream fast and not last, I mean making the overall digestibility of the meal steadier with protein. And def. no white crap bread, donuts etc. But that's easy for me to say because we dont do protein first here in australia and we dont in general believe in cutting out carbs entirely. So I'm not breaking any "rules" from my point of view, but I know your docs tell you different.

I've got that band, I got all my weight off under or at 2.8 cc and I've had 2 top ups whilst maintaining, have got 3cc in mine now. Its pretty tight and I'll probably actually lose a few pounds over a few months, which is OK by me!

That would be my suggestion too - get a treadmill or something so you dont have to leave home. Increase family activity. I take my kids to the park - our local one has a 400 metre boundary path. They play on the equipment - well the boys at 13 and 11 like to come, but I do it sometimes just with Eliza who's 6 - and I run 2 laps round the path to warm up, then I do a circuit - do pullups on the play equipment and tricep dips, run a circuit, put Eliza on my back and do step ups onto a bench, and squats (holding a live child for squat work is very hard!!!), run another lap, put my feet on the swing and do ab exercises, hamstring work by using the swing like a fitball, etc, run another lap, do planks etc on a towell on the ground, piggyback eliza while doing a staggering run round the perimeter again, then a bit of fun, push her on the swing, run round to the other side and push from the other direction, back and forth with each swing. This is a REALLY hard workout, it gets my heart rate up to like 180, me red faced and sweating, its definitely personal trainer quality stuff, not some lame thing I made up round the kids. Its entirely possible to get this sort of workout in with your kids present, you jsut have to be creative and have the desire to do it. That's OK in summer, bit harder if its wet or freezing as you dont want to be lying on the ground outside then. So I just adapt!

Ugh, I cant think of anything more difficult with a band than chugging your way through loads of raw food. I find raw vegetables VERY difficult to eat and the same goes for fruit, apples and bananas are quite diffult, absolutely FORGET about any stone fruit. I honestly dont think this lifestyle would be that easy with a band - but then everyone's bands behave differently. I like my veges steamed - much easier to eat.

I just feel sorry for everyone who has surgery scheduled in Mexico. I posted a few days ago about media frenzy and how I'd keep an open mind for the moment. Well several days later I can say there's NO WAY I would be going to mexico for surgery at the moment. Because its not just about you, its about bringing it back into a healthy population. There's cases in Australia too now, its very scary.

You know I reckon really fast weight loss is overrated, although it would be nice! 26kg in that time is great going. Its steady and likely to be fat rather than muscle, Water and fat. Its better for your health, you give your skin a better chance of keeping up and by eating so well you are helping to ensure you lose fat and keep your muscle. I think your diet looks really healthy and not too much at all as long as you're not eating to discomfort - you've got plenty of Protein in a few different forms, some fruit, a few different vegies and no processed carbs - GREAT going!. By eating so sensibly, you cut cravings, you're getting what you need etc. If you want to speed things up from here, exercise is the way to do it. A bit of high intensity cardio interval training, for example, really helps with fat loss.

I found the surgery very easy, I think I had some sort of strong morphine based pain killer on the day of surgery, the nurse came in and gave me whatever once or twice. By that evening I required no more pain relief but did need a sleeping pill as i had my surgery at 8.30 am, had been lying on my back ALL day,had slept off the anaesthetic and was prowling my room in boredom as I simply could not sleep and being the wee hours, there was NOTHING to watch on telly. I came home the next morning and never even took paracetamol. When we got home, I got changed and we went for a walk!

Well, I think we create heaven and hell right here on earth, we're living it NOW. If you're a good person, good things come to you. If you do wrong by others, well, what goes around comes around. You dont need to believe in God to think of it this way. Patty seems to have gone. She's probably down at the mall glaring daggers at breastfeeding mothers for being so evil and immodest.

Doesnt this just make you want to bash your head against a brick wall? Its completely f..k...g stupid and no wonder our society has such an obesity problem. I had a similar problem at the movies a few weeks ago. Its always cheaper to buy a BUCKET of popcorn and a HUGE softdrink (and we dont have those mega gulp cup things you guys have, that's even more horrendous). They try to talk you out of the small every single time. I stand my ground here, I pay MORE for four small popcorns than I do for the large combos. However, I really did have to throw a tantrum when I took my two boys to the movies during the holidays. Three small popcorns and three small drinks didnt come as a combo but were $10 each. Yet I could buy a family combo of four small popcorns and drinks for $20. The bitch at the counter insisted I would have to pay $30 for only three. So I asked for the manager, bought the family combo for four, and threw the fourth in the damn rubbish bin right in front of her. Then I wrote to Village cinemas and told them what I thought. Know what they sent me? A free voucher for the candy bar next time we were at the movies! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH You're probably better off without your smoothie, annoying as it is. I'm positive those smoothie bars are responsible for the wobbly muffin tops hanging over all the ultra low rise jeans as the young girlies slurp they way around the shopping centre, paper cups always in hand. That and frothy confectionary coffees, lol.

I think Curves is a great place to start out as it is the perfect environment for women who find mainstream gyms intimidating - and many overweight or older women fall into that category. its a good solid circuit style workout that will have great results for most peple if followed consistently. However, I have a couple of real concerns with their system, enough that I did decline a job I was offered there as I just dont agree with it. First is their heart rate/fat burning zone theories that they base everything on - this is completely outdated and pretty much disproven information. Now its absolutely FINE to keep your workout to your fat burning zone but it is complete bollocks that if you work harder you wont be burning fat and losing weight. Yet they are sticklers for it, if they notice you red faced and sweating you get a telling off. I learned to just lie about what my heart rate was. The wrist tag system however makes it difficult to do this. As you get fit (and I had 3 years of running behind me when I started) you WANT to work harder. A work out that lasts 31 minutes with a heart rate of 130 or so feels like NOTHING. It's very unsatisfying and not the least bit difficult and it was definitely doing nothing for my already considerable fitness. Yet I was not allowed to work harder. I also dont find 31 minutes a satisfying time, Ilike to do about 50 to an hour. But I was not allowed to do more rounds of the stations. For this reason, if you put consistent effort in at Curves, you WILL outgrow it pretty quickly, despite their claims that you wont. For that reason, my advice would be dont sign up for long term memberships. If only they would be more flexible on intensity and length of workout they would be better. And I really think that treadmills, ellipticals and bikes so you could get half an hour's cardio in before or after your circuit would be brilliant. We actually have another women's gym chain here called Contours that works more on this pricniple and their machines are pin loaded so you adjust the weight, not hydraulic, and I feel this is a MUCH better set up. Again, despite Curves' claims, there is only so fast you can work those hydraulic machines to intensify your workout before you lose form. Its much more effective to be able to simply increase the weight. I sound a bit negative, but honestly, I think its BRILLIANT for those less fit starting out, I just do not believe it will meet many people's fitness needs for an extended period of time, unless they just enjoy the activity and arent looking to keep improving, which again, is just fine but probably not the goals of a 20 or 30 something year old woman. My mum loves it and has gone for years but she's 67.

What are your goals? Simply to help the weight come off and maintain your lean muscle or do you want to be the next Ms Universe? It makes a difference. Personally, I run for 40 mins to an hour four days - and I mix that up, some runs are steady pace, some are interval style runs and MUCH harder and every now and then I'll take it easy and do an incline walking program on my treadmill. On top of that I try to do 3 x per week, but often its only 2 of circuit training on the other two days where I do short runs on the treadmill broken up by weighted squats, lunges, pushups, dips, ab work and fitball work. I like to do really heavy QUALITY reps with these exercises, I've never found high rep/light weight routines to do a thing for me. I have my heart rate through the roof too, I do it really intensely. But that's me and what I like and feel works for my body. Its impossible to prescribe for someone else, could you perhaps see a trainer, or failing that, there's SO much information out there on the net, you just need to google stuff like HIIT (high intensity interval training), circuit training, strength training etc. But "current" exercise wisdom says that HIIT combined with reasonably heavy strength training is the best way to burn fat and build muscle. Who knows though, these things come and go and tend to be in fashion at any given time. And at any rate, you have to start with what you can do, so dont let all the info find intimidate you. For starters, walking is good as long as its causing your heart rate to rise at least over 120 and for you to sweat a bit. Then you should try to hit each major muscle group - so thighs and butt, abs, chest, back and arms. You can do body weight exercises for all of this - squats and lunges, ab work, push ups, tricep dips and back extensions would cover it.

Ah, I think this is something that your doctor should have explained but you probably wont "get it under control". As you get more restriction in your band there will be foods you cant eat. Its differnet for everyone but certain foods are common - bread, Pasta, rice, fries, cakes, donuts, stodgy stuff like that. You've probably eaten your last burger too. Honestly, you come not to miss those foods becuase you begin to associate them with pain. I can eat small amounts of them. If I really want a slice of bread, I can have it, if I really want any of those things, I can have small amounts, but I'm very lucky. They do cause me discomfort to a degree, but not actual blockage or vomiting - many bandsters cant eat them at all. Unfortunately other foods I struggle with a bit are fresh fruit and raw vegetables. You'll come to know what causes issues for you and either find a way to eat them safely - I can eat salad as long as it doesnt have too much lettuce and I avoid raw carrot for example - or you will find alternatives.

I agree, and by the same token, my advice would be to try tiny tiny fills, like .2cc. It seems in the States because fills cost you guys so much money and insurance and the like is so tedious that the usual practice is for much bigger fills - and I think fluoro is a bit of an issue too. Filling your band to the point where it *just* empties right on the screen shows one thing - that it's not blocked at that particular moment in time. It does not prevent post fill swelling and trouble and I think it actually encourages over aggressive fills. Restriction is best approached very cautiously - with teeny tiny fills and you will probably find if you have a smidge, settle, get used to it and then go back for another smidge more, you'll tolerate it a lot better than if it were all put in at once.

I'd guess Heather's right, that's what she's talking about - a small fill at the time of surgery. Dont worry about the incisions. Its mainly the big one that's sore anyway, and you'll still have that, as for the others, well I cant even find mine 3 and a half years down the track. The scars from the small ones disappear entirely.

Its not likely you'll get to 10cc. The more you have in your band, the less it takes at each fill to restore good restriction or to increase it a tiny bit. I dont have a 10cc band, I have a 4cc, but just to give you something to think about, I had 0.1cc put in mine last week and its reduced what I can eat by a good 1/3. Its made a HUGE difference. Appetite is not raging anymore, can only eat less than a cup. You will probably find that as you get more in your band, very small fills make much more difference. I have only had a couple of top ups as I've been maintaining for about 18 months and Fluid does sort of disappear (probably by evaporation over time) so I've really only come back up to what I was about 2 years ago, and I stayed at that level of restriction for an entire year to get down to my goal weight. The time between fill stretches out the more you're filled too - a good level of restriction begins to last you longer and longer. Especially since weight loss does slow down a bit. So in short, dont panic. You've plenty of wiggle room in your band yet.

You know, I've always found the idea of that pouch test very "fad diet" and resisted it. But I've just read it and whilst I still dont think its necessary for everyone to do it unless the really want to, it highlights the one great downside of the band that most bandsters fall prey to at one time or another. Eating around the band! This does not necessarily mean eating bad, unhealthy foods, simple carbs, or high fat foods. Many extremely health foods are slider foods. When I struggle to stay on a healthy diet its AlWAYS due to eating slider foods. Yogurt for Breakfast because I've come to dislike the idea of wholegrain toast and an egg, due to the "discomfort" of a full pouch. I anticipate the slowness and care with which I will have to eat it, the multitude of little discomforts and minor stuck feelings, the "fullness" at the end. I dont know I'm doing this, all i know is my mind goes "nah, dont feel like toast, but those Rice Bubbles look good". I think about a healthy roll for lunch - wholegrain organic bread, spread with some avocado, some egg, salad vegies like tomato, cucumber, lettuce, beetroot and some salt and pepper". My mind anticipates slowness, extreme care and again a tight, satisfied pouch. So it makes my appetite think, nah, dont feel like that, perhaps some Soup instead. Now there's nothing wrong with soup, its healthy and its one of my main ways of getting down a variety of vegies. But if I eat a small bowl of soup for lunch, I do still feel satisfied and stop after much less than before I was banded. But what happens an hour later? The Cookies in the cupboard start calling - and those can and DO go down by the dozen. If my belly is still pleasantly full of a Protein, complex carb and vegie combo, which is trickling into my bloodstream at a nice even rate, I dont even think about the cookies. Everyone always stresses the importance of eating till satisfied rather than full on this board and I would never advocate eating to real, uncomfortable fullness. But I find that if I am to eat foods that I know will induce real fullness and if I eat soup for example, to accompany it with half a wholegrain roll and follow up with as much of an apple as I can, I will stick to much much fewer calories than if I allow myself to eat easy (if healthy) foods. Just food for thought so to speak. I really restarted my weight loss twice during my journey when I realised that I was living on slider foods and had let the fibrous, airy dense foods go - the wholegrains such as bread, brown rice and wholegrain Pasta. I know lots of bandsters wont eat these foods or cant eat these foods, but I'm sure you get my point.

For about 2 years I did correspond with a lady on another forum who had the lapband, she was here in Australia, from Adelaide. She had MS and was wheelchair bound, having lost one leg and being simply too obese and out of condition to cope with crutches when she was well and then being simply too ill when she had a flare up. She did quite well with her band, managing to get herself from super morbidly obese (BMI 50) down to a BMI of 35 or so and to the the point where during the times she was well, she was able to start exercising by walking on her crutches short distances. As I recall it however, she really did have to live on about 600 calories a day to achieve this. She had to have her band very tight and live on mushies and liquid foods (which wasnt so inappropriate for her as she had swallowing issues too) to lose weight and it came off slowly, every pound was hard won. But she did it, give or take a bit of regaining during her times of illness. Her main issue was that she'd get ill and bedridden and that she had swallowing issues to begin with, it made her weight journey extremely hard. If your health is stable then I guess you'd share more the extremely low calorie needs. Personally, I've never found the band has the ability to keep me to a calorie intake that low, but many do find they're down there at 800 or so a day. I'd say that its important to examine your own habits, issues etc and weigh it up, certainly when you're limited in how much you can burn, a bypass makes a lot of sense. But that doesnt mean the band CANT work. And perhaps research the vertical sleeve gastrectomy forum here too, I dont know enough about it to say much but there's certainly help and advice to be had over there.

I'm just speaking in generalities Beth. I hate when people get all puffed out in the chest and say "I have no problem with gay people, my best friend is gay" when really, they have HUGE issues with it and are so proud of themselves for being so broadminded and all, kwim? I think a lot people who support gay marriage/interracial marriage/...fill in your issue.... are really completely NOT at ease with the matter. They're so not at ease with it that they become very vocal trying to pretend that they are. I dont think that helps anyone really. Speaking of civil union, I agree Lulu. I totally disagree with Patty that the majority of our society is highly religious and that God created marriage, in fact I think that people who take that deeply religious a view are few and far between. Certainly in Australia they are. Nonetheless out of respect that people DO feel that way, I personally elected not to get married in church. Why would I? I dont really believe in God and I'm not keen on organised religion. I most definitely do NOT want my children having that stuff taught to them at school, they have not been christened, even though technically I was christened Anglican. I've never availed myself of any of those religious ceremonies. I totally agree that civil union is a good answer to it. Leave "marriage" for people who deeply believe in what it is "supposed" to be and let the rest of us enjoy the same legal and social rights with a different ceremony that is equally socially respectable but can take place between ANY sort of couple.

Dont you just love doctors? How irresponsible of him to simply assume it will be OK. I would never take the word of a non-lapband doctor that anti inflammatories are OK. Clear it with your surgeon and dont accept anyone else's word. And any responsible doctor would have advised you to speak to your own doctor or better yet, have liaised with your doctor himself. Having said that, my surgeon's view on it is that for short term use in times of real need, it is unlikely to do any harm, but I agree, you'll probably need some sort of antacid - I've taken Voltaren once and it was agony until it cleared the pouch, the burning and pain were really bad. Had to wash it down with a gallon of Mylanta. If you can get a liquid formulation or a coated one that wont dissolve till later, that would be loads better.

I often struggle to understand your health system and insurance issues, they seem so senseless. It is SO much cheaper and more efficient to pay for lapband surgery for people from quite moderate levels of obesity rather than to clean up the mess that their ill health creates further on down the track. Diabetes, heart disease, they're expensive public health issues. However it makes NO sense to me that an insurance company would fund lapband surgery for someone who does "qualify" (BMI 40+

Lol, that's definitely an NSV!! The finale to the Biggest Loser (Australian version) was on last night. Seeing all the contestants before and afters, it totally blew my mind that I've lost as much as most of them. So those INCREDIBLE transformations- I've made one too. I just dont see it everyday in the mirror. I am happy with what I see, for sure, but I'd love love love to really SEE myself like that - the way others see me.

I certainly dont want to sound like I cant understand that - I can honestly say that when I was researching and made my decision, I did understand that a slip or erosion could happen. But I was given NO information about how miserable life could be if such trouble did occur or that the band could simply inexplicably cause such issues. And personally, with the newness of bands in general use (and sleeves too for that matter) I think everyone needs to be careful about being too one eyed about their own choices since we all may be eating our words one day (if we can get them down that is!). You just never know, do you? I'd hate to think I'd given someone an undeserved mouthful about pulling their socks up only to find myself having my band removed some time later. The ones that deserve it though...... lol.