Jachut

My six year old daughter is full on into the "i'm in love with so and so and we kissed" (not that she really has) stuff now. Its all going on at school - I dont think she'd make the connection between lingerie and sex though, despite having seen plenty of it on TV. As for my older kids, I'm a little gobsmacked by how much they know and we've never had "the talk". They wont engage on the subject which I find frustrating as they could have wrong information and almost certainly dont know as much as they think they do. Its not so different from when I was growing up though. I knew all about sex before my parents sat me down.

What I find ironic is that on this very forum there's entire threads devoted to people complaining about the lighter people getting the surgery. Many obese people are very jealous of anyone thinner than them getting a lap band and are very free with their opinions about how those of us who started with BMI's of 35 or less should just diet and lose weight that way. All the while of course forgetting that they had a BMI of 35 once even if it was only for five minutes and they were no more successful at losing it then than they are now. Anyone who has the means, the opportunity and the desire to get the surgery should be able to. There is no real cut off point at which you're too thin - many people struggle mightily to maintain normal bodyweights but inside are every bit as sick and enslaved to their weight as people who have lost the actual scale battle. I can see reasons why someone with a BMI of 25 should be able to be banded depending upon the case. I just think its nobody's business but yours, dont listen to anyone, you know what you want and need.

I had that - huge long rumbling burps that just flowed out, unlike how you can normally feel a burp as a pocket of air if that makes sense. i could just open my mouth and I didnt have to actually force a burp, it would just rumble out, sometimes lasting hilariously long. It doesnt last, luckily!

I think whenever it will get done is best. I like late afternoon early evening too - I'm at my most energetic, but lately I've been going out at 6 am because I've been working full time. It's still good, but boy I'm soooooooo tired, even though I would normally get up by 6.15 anyway. When I'm working, no doubt about it, its safer to go in the morning so its done and cant be put off. but I keep it short and sweet - a quick 30 minute 6km run. If I have time, I will do something else in the evening, if not I dont have to worry.

Its pretty common. Unfortunately you cant just keep going tighter and tighter to get to the weight you want, if these problems arise before you get there, then I think you really have to stop and look at what you can do with your diet and exercise at current restriction to get the rest of the weight off. easier said than done, I know. I'm lucky my band took me to a BMI of 22, but I'd like to lose another 10 or so. I cant manage it either - I'd need more restriction and if I had more I'd be too tight. But if I really pulled my finger out, watched my diet, zipped my lip and did even MORE exercise, I could lose it - without more restriction.

I left my band as it was, over time it has loosened a little and I probably eat about 3-400 calories more per day simply in increased quantity. I continue to follow the same food patterns - I try to avoid junk, I try not to snack, I choose healthy - if that's a "diet" then I will be on one for the rest of my life. I get up at 6 am every day to go for a run and put in about 3 hour long weight training sessions on top of that, but whilst I always do the same things (love lvoe love my running) I mix my routine around evey couple of months, for a while I'll do high intensity interval training and circuit training, then for a while longer, slower runs and more traditional weights routines. I find it helps avoid the pounds creeping up as they can so easily do. I probably exercise about 8 or 9 hours a week in total - I do a LOT but it allows me to eat about 1800 calories a day and maintain. With regard to skin, I lost about 100 and I dont have lots of it, but I do have some. You can tell I've had 3 babies, and my bum and inner thighs are a bit sad. I'd like a boob job, but that's all I'd really do - I wouldnt have anything like a tummy tuck for the problem I have.

With great difficulty! Its almost impossible, thankfully at 3 and a half breastfeeding would not be an eight times per day event!

I'd suspect you're sick with a virus. It doesnt sound typical "band".

Oh, there is PLENTY of hanging skin on biggest loser. Ever noticed how after a certain period of time the men stop taking off their shirts to be weighed?. It happens when the sag factor becomes too great. Ever notice how the bike shorts the women wear are quite high waisted, not hipsters like is normal these days? Hides the sagging stomach. Exercise does protect your lean muscle to some degree (you will always lose lean body tissue as well in a big weight loss, you just want to minimise it). Building muscle gives you more shape. But at the end of the day you are shrinking your body, sometimes to 1/2 of its former size, there is going to be skin left over. If you have loads of it, blame your parents and the genes they gave you, not your lack of exercise. Dont make yourself feel guilty over something you cant prevent.

Realistically you will eat chocolate again - I had a sweet tooth prior to surgery and I have one three and a half years after surgery. I did really well the first year and lost most of my weight, I had more restriction, more appetite control particularly during that first year, over time I've found the effect of the band reduces a bit and a more normal appetite creeps back in - perhaps I could be tighter to counteract this, I dont know. But I eat chocolate and Cookies - just not all the time. I've lost and kept off 100lb. I find being very active allows you to not have to be quite so perfect an eater too - and I agree, enjoy things moe without gorging myself on them. This is real life, not a "diet" forever.

Sadly its a pretty common side effect of weight loss. Dont know about insurance - certainly in Australia insurance wont pay for it.

Mine's OK until I lie down - same with DH. We go to bed at night and the symphony starts - sounds like a couple of terriers having a fight in the bedroom, lol. Who knows why - I can feel it and its past my stomach, in the intestines, so I cant figure how or why banding causes that unless its just that air in your stomach doesnt escape so its all noisier.

Well, technically it speeds up your metabolism to eat smaller meals more often. But I think there's more to it than that. I really struggle to stop eating once I start. I like to eat till I'm good and satisfied so for me, if I snack I tend to overeat. I do better and I lose better on a 3 meal a day regime. I do even better if I skip Breakfast - it seems to stop me ever really getting hungry and I do lose weight, but I know its bad for you so I do ensure I eat breakie. But I dont snack. At the end of the day its calories in v calories out, and anything else only really can give you a minor metabolic advantage. So I'd do what suits you best.

Also, we've got to get our heads around this but we cant keep changing so remarkably forever. I find this VERY hard to deal with, I cant seem to stop trying to lose weight. I dont know how to just be happy with it. To fit into last year's clothes is really VERY successful. How many summers have you gotten the clothes out and wanted to slit your throat as you battle to get the zips up, the buttons closed and as you look in despair at the flabby white flesh oozing out of every opening? To pull on last year's pants is great! That last bit of weight loss was incredibly slow for me, it does take time but you're right, we do ease up too. Its funny you mention this though, I tried on a vest this morning that was HUGE. Its getting cooler here now, thought I'd wear it to work. Well the neck falls off my shoulders so I went and bought a new one and tried it on with a skirt from last year. I expected the skirt to be loose - it wasnt - it fit the same as last year and that pissed me off a bit lol.

That is the GREATEST!!! I feel on top of the world every single time I walk past a My Size store these days (our major plus size). You can dress for every occasion so much easier with so much more choice and for SO much less money once you can shop anywhere.

It has to be rather a lot to start causing actual problems -like several hundred grams a day. But I reckon that eating Protein you dont stricly need in preference to other nutrients is pretty short sighted. I would argue that 50 to 60 grams a day is PLENTY for a woman of average physical activity and that for a bandster eating more than that means you're missing out on other things you need - like the fibre, antioxidands and Vitamins in fruit and veg and complex carbs like wholegrain breads or cereals. Focussing on protein too much means you dont get a balanced diet. That is a pretty Australian viewpoint of it though, as our approach isnt quite so protein focussed. Very few people on this forum agree with me. None of us have dropped dead yet so I'd say there's room all along the continuum for various dietary practices and that probably ALL people who have had WLS fall short in various areas of their diet.

I have a girlfriend who had come to believe the band just"wouldnt work for her". She couldnt tolerate any fill, she'd have night reflux and constant pbing. Eventually she and her doc decided to try a different band. They went in and found a hernia. Hernia repaired, new band in place and what do you know, three or four pounds falling off her every single week, PERFECT band experience 2nd time around.

I love a good spray tan!

Oh, wow, well at least its some sort of an answer for you. Keep us informed of your progress - I noticed you'd kind of disappeared and I have wondered how you were doing.

My surgeon likes you to check in once a year and I have been back for 2 tiny fills. Exercise - I devote an hour a day - I try for four runs - 2 10kms easy runs, 2 hard interval sessions (they might be on the treadmill) and 3 circuit training sessions - sort of like beefed up Body Pump classes - much heavier weights and running intervals. if I'm busy and run out of time on any given day I'll do someting like a half hour quick run on the treadmill.

Exactly - its not about disrespecting anyone's feelings or sensibilities but it IS about putting your child first, therefore making someone else's feelings in the matter (other than your partner or other children) completely irrelevant. To suggest that perhaps you could be discreet and consider another feelings is to indirectly support the fact that breastfeeding is somehow shameful, dirty or cheap. By acknowledging those feelings you validate them. So whilst pattygreen didnt actually SAY any of those things - which she vigorously denies - she is passively validating them. A feeding mother simply shouldnt have to worry about some viscious old biddy shooting daggers at her from across the mall. Her child is what is important. And other women ought to support that, not suggest that it somehow be hidden to make others comfortable. Thankfully most people DO have the maturity to accept that feeding a baby is not behaving in a sexually suggestive manner and the majority of people who do have issues with feeling comfortable around it come from another era when it was unfortunately kept under wraps.

There will always be women who need to cut other women down. They are the ones who call you a bad mother for having a caesarean, or for bottle feeding, or for breastfeeding or for having a home birth, for not disciplining their child the way another would - whatever choice you want to make, there's another woman who (probably through guilt and disappointment at her own perceived failings) will crucify you for it. Nothing is uglier than those types of women. When it comes to the wonderful role of being a parent,there should be sisterhood, not judgement.

No, what you really said was "breasts offend me so your child should wait till he gets home so that I dont get offended". My response is that I feel that is as inexcusably rude as me saying "you're fat and your eating Mcdonalds offends my sensibilities, so please do it behind closed doors". Its entirely politically incorrect, judgemental and offensive. And so is your belief that women should make their one year olds make do with something other than what they want so that you dont have to see a breast. Or so that all these men who dont have a problem with breastfeeding (except in YOUR mind) dont see a breast. Its rubbish pattygreen, complete rubbish. I'm not wound tight, my breastfeeding years finished long ago and I have NEVER been made to feel I was doing anything inappropriate - and I might add, I would seek out a quite/private spot where possible because the lack of distractions made feeding quicker and easier - a food court was not my first choice. I dont really have a vested interest in this. But your attitude is offensive, REALLY offensive actually. Especially since most of the time you cant actually tell whether a woman is feeding her baby or holding him on her lap. You say "is it too much to ask". Well, really, if its not your child, you dont have any rights in the matter so yes it IS too much for you to ask. You're not a relevant part of the equation. And in Australia at any rate, at 1 year old breast milk IS the main part of their meal. And the benefits of continuing to feed your child on demand until 2 were convincing enough to me that I would have completely ignored some old biddy who told me to cover up. Well, I did, my mother thought it went on a bit long. I didnt listen to her either. (.) (.) Cheers!

I'd say see how you go weight wise for a while. I've personally found this incredibly difficult to get my head around but I DONT NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. I'm up to about 2000 calories a day and not gainign weight. I panick on a daily basis about how much food I eat, but really, the band did not change how my body functions, I"m 5ft 10, 150 lb and I exercise an hour a day - and by that I mean a good solid hour's run or circuit training with a 700 - 800 calorie burn. So really, 2000 calories is not unreasonable. It just seems so MUCH for a bandster. But gradually over time, its becoming normal and I realise my body can handle it, but this takes TIME. My advice would be dont fill till you start to gain (if you ever do). To stop trying to lose weight when that's been your whole life is not an easy process. To accept that you're OK and not to continue to try to change yourself is incredibly hard. It's taken me a good 18 months and its been harder than the weight loss. In answer to your other questions, yes the double chin will probably stay - you've lost weight, not become perfect. You will have problem spots and faults just like anyone else. Its connect with needing to be always on a self improvement project - stop trying to lose wieght, start obsessing with plastic surgery. Its the best reason I can think of for waiting the recommended 2 years - if you dont you can easily have five procedures in that time that you may later regret. Of course PS is much needed by many, I'm talking about obsessing about your double chin, getting that done, deciding you need a face lift, getting that done, thinking your boobs arent quite right, so many people just cant stop! And sadly, flabby skin is a fact of life after large weight loss that even PS cant completely rectify. Its better than being huge, and the world would be pretty boring if we all looked like supermodels. Believe it or not, people dont really see it, you have an overall aura or presence that people find attractive and people just dont focus on your flab like you do. Cut yourself some slack and give yourself some time, you'll get there eventually.

Hmmm, how would YOU like it if someone told you you were fat enough to last till you got home, that you didnt need to eat in public and offend everyone who doesnt like to see fat people stuffing their faces? I think you just *might* be a bit offended. What you are saying is really the same thing. Why should a one year old wait for their meal just so you are not offended?