Jachut

Yes, fruit and nuts of some description are high on my list of Snacks. Fruit on its own is very unsatisfying if you're very hungry, a piece of cheese or somethign with it does add that satisfaction factor. Green apple with Peanut Butter is yummy too!

Well said Kat, its all about reaching the point where NOT doing it is scarier, until then you're not ready. And its hard to have someone else suggest it to you when you've not considered it yourself. However, even pizza and McDonalds can fit into a healthy diet when you learn what reasonable portion size is and if you dont eat it every day. I have not eliminated one single food. Reading this board frightened the sh*t out of me because of all the high Protein diets everyone does, and all the shakes! I dont think that's a healthy diet and I dont want to eat that way, so much so that I decided not to have surgery. Till I joined an Australian board and realised that that was not the only way to work a lapband. I dont do ANY of that stuff. I dont have shakes, I dont measure, count calories or fat or protein. I eat whatever I want but I've learned to eat small quantities and not eat all day. My diet is more *normal* than it was before I was banded. I occasionally eat take away food, I occasionally have a piece of cake, I drink small amounts of alcohol quite regularly and bread, cereals and Pasta are regular items in my diet. Its really not hard or weird or different. Its how you should be eating anyway, for the sake of your health.

Simple answer is you probably wont. In fact, when you consider what a lot of obese people eat - mountains of nutrionally worthless empty calories, their diets can actually IMPROVE although they're eating 1/4 the amount. As for the hair thing, well there's enough people on here suffering hair loss while drinking Protein shakes for all they're worth to prove that protein is not the definitive answer to hair loss. There's also zinc, Biotin, Iron issues etc. Balanced diet, moderation in all things, its really the only way to ensure you get a bit of everything and dont miss out on any nutrients entirely. Red meat for example is a great source of iron and zinc that protein shakes simply arent - and even when they're added, there's simply no way supplements can match the synergy between nutrients in their natural form, you cant supplement the phytonutrients from plant foods for example, and we really dont understand how all these things work together, so its important to eat your protein as well as drink it etc. There's not much point getting enough protein if you're lacking badly in Vitamin c for example. So you have muscles but your teeth fall out? I dont quite understand the logic in it. I'm not anti protein at all but I just dont accept that its the one and only thing that matters in our diets and I think that thinking you can focus on it and supplement everything else is dangerous.

We probably all need to come to some form of moderation in the end. The fact is both high Protein and high carb have been done and neither worked because at the end of the day, people arent compliant with either - they eat too much junk food and dont do any exercise. Basically, if you cut out the junk and empty calories, the sugar, and excess fat and you move more, you will lose weight. After that, its just down to what you believe is healthier and what makes YOU feel best. There's certainly plenty of people with bodies that do not handle carbs well and who lose better and feel much better on higher protein diets. Others of us run better on carbs. We're all different. Personally I find protein foods heavy and need to eat them in moderation, whereas carbs and fibre fill me up and make my band work like it should - stay full for a longer time etc AND I have noticeably more pleasant runs where my energy lasts until the end. I just think people should find what works for them and not believe it all hook line and sinker because there's loads of outrageous claims and very little true scientific evidence on any ONE perfect way to nourish the human body. And even doctors and nutritionists get in on the fads.

I dont like a lot of milk on my cereal anyway, usually I do the 1/2 cup cereal 1/4 cup milk ratio. I like the crunch too. And most of the time when I eat cereal, its muesli, so I might have yogurt instead of milk.

My doc has no real instructions other than to be cautious. For me, I have always been able to eat, I dont swell after fills generally. But its one of those things where you have to listen to your body, some people do need to let things settle with liquids. I think you need to be careful for a week or two actually, since fills can kick in at odd times.

I'm not convinced that feeling fuller longer means its healthy to eat more Protein than you need though. I generally feel fuller longer an eat less becuase I feel sick from all the rich food in my system, it makes me nauseous and gassy. Getting enough protein is important, its how much is enough that's the question. There's lots of good evidence that a *slightly* higher proportion of protein in our diets is good for weight loss and not detrimental to other areas of health. But I dont understand why it suddenly becomes the wondernutrient after surgery either. It simply isnt approached that way here, and people in Australia arent all failing with their bands or ending up with no muscle either. By all evidence, the band works just as well on a carb based diet as it does a protein one. But that needs to be GOOD carbs, not supermarket bread and frosties! Protein is like all other nutrients, its broken down in the body into forms that the body can use. Its not magic.

Its happened to me once earlier this year, I had a slight unfill (.2cc) and felt better, then weeks later, whatever caused the random tightness (think it was some menstrual difficulties I was having at the time) sorted itself out and wham, I'm as wide open as can be. I'm going back to have the fill put back in, I dont need to lose anymore, but I'm having to work pretty hard not to gain weight. Lots of willpower and self denial going on here, and thank goodness for my running.

I eat the same as I ate to lose and I exercise the same. I just kept doing it till I stopped losing and called that goal :-). But I never really "dieted" so there was no need to add extra food at maintenance Today has been a good day, a good example: Breakfast - bowl of muesli with some strawberries and greek yogurt lunch: a tuna sandwich on wholegrain bread with some lettuce, tomato, cucumber and beetroot (tinned). Couldnt finish it, ate about 2/3 Afternoon: two ryvitas with vegemite Dinner: mashed potato and pumpkin, steamed broccoli, a lamb loin chop, and a glass of wine - dinner was about a cup in total, maybe a bit less). So my meals are small, but normal. That's what the rest of the family eats too. I guess the only difference is that if we happened to have a block of chocolate or something after dinner watching a movie, I wouldnt hestitate to get my share! Oh and I have also done an 8km run today.

Nope, sorry, but you're just nuts, lol. Oh, yes, I *do* dream about food sometimes. I have a recurring one, I always have it when I go to bed a little drunk. Anything past that 3 glasses of wine, when you got to bed holding on to the bedside table because the bed keeps spinning and tipping, ergh, I must be really dehydrated because I *ALWAYS* dream of gorging myself on watery iceberg lettuce. Weird, I know.

I learned something very interesting this week though. And it may be one reason why we dont do the low carb thing in general here in Australia. SIL and BIL have been living in Canada and the States for the last 18 months. Sadly they had to come home for a family funeral but it was terrific to see them. SIL got in, went straight out to the bakery bought a loaf of bread and picked up a latte too. She is absolutely starved for real coffee (not that Starbucks crap) as in a REAL latte, the way the Europeans do it, which is mostly how our coffee is here. And she said all the bread is like cake, sweet, fluffy, and doughy. We have bread like that too of course, but there's also easily available, cheap GREAT bread, heavy, grainy and healthy, full of fibre. So maybe when I bang on how bread and cereals are NOT bad food and people here think I'm crazy, we're talking about two different things? Because if I was talking supermarket bread and Corn flakes, I would agree, those foods are best avoided.

It makes me sad that you're so young. I really hope you get to experience being YOUNG very soon. All those things are how you should feel when you're getting old and slowing down. That's really what spurred me on to having surgery. I didnt have comorbidities yet but I felt so tired and old, and that was from a relatively low BMI of 35. I am absolutely BURSTING with energy these days. The clothes and stuff are all nice, but its how I feel that really amazes me. I was missing out on life before. Very best of luck!

Sorry, but the best way to reduce the size of your stomach is cardio and strength work combined - burn off the fat and do stomach work to tone and strengthen. But unless you burn off the fat, nothing is going to make much difference. Many people already HAVE the six pack, you just cant see it.

Ugh, I know what you mean - I was the same with baby formula. Thank goodness I was a good cow and made plenty of breastmilk becuase just the smell of formula was enough to make me hurl. And I know that protein powder smell, I hate it too.

Its personal choice. This site has made me realise just what a vast culture gap exists between countries - what we consider a healthy diet and healthy foods in Australia is very very different to what you believe in America - not saying either of us is more right than the other, just that its different. personally, I dont consider a Protein shake a healthy food - its manufactured and artificial and contains things like artificial sweeteners and flavourings therefore to my way of thinking, its junk. Protein or not. So I dont drink them. But I dont base my diet on protein either - I'm a carb eater. Interestingly, my SIL was home from Canada this week for a family funeral and she was complaining about the bread - first thing she did was go to the bakery when she got home and buy some multigrain bread. She complains that Canadian and American bread is way cakier and sweeter than our bread is and that is much harder to find "real" bread, like heavy, grainy, stoneground stuff. So half the time here we're not even comparing apples with apples. No wonder people believe bread is terrible for you, while I think its healthy! But to answer your question I eat things like red meat, chicken, fish and eggs for protein, usually mostly for dinner, with a small amount of cheese, or tuna or something at lunchtime. Other than that, my staple foods are wholegrains like muesli, oatmeal (and I make it from the proper rolled oats, not quick cook muck) or good bread.

And if none of the above work and you do end up cutting them off - remember they will probably need to be resized at some point anyway.

I can still deceive people that I have a great rack. When I'm clothed, and wearing a bra, they look great, especially in contrast to my nice slim waist and flat stomach. But people dont know that they're actually rolled up! I cant really show cleavage, its more like a puddle of Water in there. But how did my butt go so flat? My jeans just slide off, I have that awful empty sag and plumbers crack if I dont keep pulling them up!

You probably *could* wait it out, but I wouldnt if you're pbing regularly. Being tight is really not that good for your band and if you're constantly having things stuck and pbing, then you could do damage.

You just sound too tight, have a bit removed. You can always put it back in down the track. I had .2cc removed and went from feeling not quite as bad as you describe, but concerned about how much I was eating, to being wide wide wide open. Resisting the urge to eat and preventing regain has been very difficult, as for me, it was a temporary hormonal blip that caused the tightness. I'm getting the fill put back in a fortnight's time. Try having a teeny bit out, you will probably feel a lot better. And its quite likely you'll lose better too.

Nope, me neither. I spend too much time on here as it is. I hate mobile phones too, lol, thats how old and crusty I am. My kids arent allowed to have one yet at 11 and 13, I just dont see why a school kid needs a phone. Mine is an old brick from about 2002, I have a prepaid plan and I used the phone only for the odd occasion. I have a phone on the wall in the kitchen, I use that!

I havent discovered anything I absolutely cant eat in 3 years. But some foods are harder than others and some so tedious to eat that I just dont bother any more, my desire for those foods having totally evaporated - pizza and McDonalds mainly. By the same token though, I can pb on absolutely anything - I've pb'd Water when I gulped it once after a long run. Eat slowy and carefully and you'll find your diet shouldnt be TOO restricted, although be realistic in there are foods you may not really want to or be able to eat again.

I think Curves has lots going for it - supportive atmosphere, no men, no lycra clad glamour girls, and a good basic circuit routine for women who are not athletes and have not been in great shape. I also think there's a few pitfalls to be aware of. The instructors for one, obviously we can each talk about only the centres we've experienced but I worked as a trainer at Curves for a little while and really, the trainers know very little. They are not properly trained, they're not very knowledgeable and I wouldnt be placing my health and fitness squarely in their hands, I'd be informing myself. And secondly the equipment - its GREAT if you're unfit, but despite how much Curves denies that you'll ever get too fit for their equipment, that's simply not true. There is only so fast you can push that hydraulic equipment (which is how you increase intensity and continue to progress) before you lose form because it has limitations on how fast it will more. I was unable to get enough of a workout to even get a little bit sore from it, and everytime I went I had to try to work so darn fast, that I'd lose the correct form and it took me months for my back to recover, especially from those twistie side to side abdominal machines. If you're starting out, you need lots of friendly support then it'll be a really great experience for you. If you have base fitness and like to exercise and know a fair bit about it, you'd be better off at a regular gym.

I guess that's what I do kind of naturally, I supplement healthy carbs. I eat a typical bandster diet with the ADDITION of a fair few healthy carbs - 500 to 600 calories a day over and above that 1000 benchmark, made up of wholegrain breads, cereals and extra fruit and veges (on, and sometimes the odd mars bar!)

What a great post! It really is such an exciting journey, especially when you know its really working.

Well.....no, not specifically. My doctor has never even mentioned a calorie level to me. I just dont understand why US doctors do. I mean, everyone is different, HOW can they say you should eat this much or that much. The only time you need to adjust your calories is if you stop losing weight. But I think people are nuts to restrict themselves to 800 when they could be losing on 1400 - not everyone can of course, but many people undereat way more than they need to. Of course, if you want to lose weight really fast, then that's one thing, but I was happy to go the slow and steady route, and I ate about 1500 calories a day all the way through - purely estimation as I virtually never actually count but I'd say most of us here know the calorie count of virtually everything after a lifetime of dieting. I am 5ft 10 and 154lb, so not petite by any means, I run or powerwalk for about an hour every day - I usually cover 7 to 11 kms, and I'm a busy person. I would laugh if anyone told me to eat 900 calories a day - and ignore them totally. It is not enough for me and I've never had to drop that low to lose. Go by what you know about YOUR body, rules are really pretty riduculous when you read here how different every single person is. We all need to listen to our docs, and take rules into consideration but we still have to listen to our own bodies because that's what's going to keep the weight off for life - knowing your own body and obeying its needs. I also cant cope on low carb diets, I feel shite within a day or two, and higher levels of Protein like 70 grams a day or more make me bloated, horribly gassy and nauseous - its just way too much rich food for me, when my digestive system is used to lower fat items like wholegrain breads, fruit and vegetables, crackers as my staples. Works for me, and gives me energy to run. So I'd also ignore anyone who told me low carb is the only way to go, particularly since I've lost 120% of my excess weight eating bread (in moderation).