Jachut

Argh, ran 15kms last Sunday and was struck by iliotibial band symptoms, had the classic pain in the side of my knee, couldnt walk downhill or down stairs, had to walk with my knee locked straight all day Monday. Tuesday much much better. Gonna cautiously try a run today. Right heel quite sore. Sigh. I had just a hint of that same pain in the same leg when I did the run for the kids back in March, that was 14.2. I guess I'm lucky that as many problems as I have, knees generally arent one of them. It seems to happen only after a long distance, so I must get fatigued and my biomechanics suffer. I seem to handle the 10k or less distance fine but every single time I think I'm going to do that half and increase the mileage (and it wasnt sudden, I've been building gradually every week) my body just protests. Perhaps I just have too many inherent problems to run such a long distance, and should settle on 10K as "my" distance. Perhaps I could work on getting it down to a sub 50! At any rate I'm going to leave it 2 weeks before I try another really long run. I'd feel so stupid if I ended up not being able to run at all! I need new shoes too, Ive had mine for 8 months, run about 800kms in them. But they're so freaking expensive, I just dont have the $200 this month!

I had a BMI of 36 when banded, I got a year of steady, fairly effortless weight loss. After that I had long plateaus (months at a time) and lost about 30lb the second year. Its nearly my birthday again and I was reflecting this time last year I was 74kg, so I've lost about 10lb over the last 12 months. In all that time, until the last six months, I never gained a single pound. Now I've pretty much stabilised I do cycle up and down by 2 or 3lb. I'm at the heavy end at the moment having just had a small unfill of .2ml a few weeks back. It was too big an unfill on reflection, I'm starving now and dont even have to eat slowly! But I got inexplicably tight all of a sudden, probably due a the unfortunate coincidence of PMT and a plane flight happening at the same time. Might head back to have half that put back in, I definitely dont like spending more time at the heavy end of my range than at the lighter!

We all know it, those of us who run. We KNOW that we wouldnt get the same results from walking. Walking is great exercise, a healthy habit and we have to walk before we can run. But we all KNOW that we'd never get as fit from walking. Here's a little article I found trying to calculate the calories from this morning's run How Many Calories Are You Really Burning? Its all the up/down motion of running as well as the straight ahead motion that makes it the bigger calorie burner - primarily becuase you need more oxygen to run than walk. Which is why our cardiovascular systems are much stronger than they would be from just walking. Its also why my knee is farked after running 14.5 kms his morning (10 miles or so). Lol. But hey, I burned over 1000 calories. Which explains why whenever I do my long run, I tend to pig out on lollies and stuff during the rest of the day. Tonight I ate two bowls of ice cream. They were small bowls. It wouldnt have seemed so bad if I'd just had one big one. But it DOES explain why I was always able to lose on 1500 a day, doesnt it? So next time someone says to you, Oh its great you like to run but you're wasting your time. Walking burns more fat. That drives me CRAZY. That low heart rate theory is so flawed but everyone believe it. Its simple. Work harder for better results.

Lol, me too. I have really REALLY skinny hands. You can see every single tendon in them, it grosses my son out completely. And the tendons now pop out in my wrists too and every bony landmark is visible. There is no fat at all on them. The skin isnt *too* bad but I definitely have 40 year old hands now. But you know what? I like them becuase even though the skin was smoother before they were fat sausange fingers, not the least bit feminine, now I have really elegant hands. I get my nails done too so they're long, and I already have long fingers, so I am really proud of my hands. Good handcream helps a lot. I reckon I need that fat grafting though, in another 20 years I'm definitely going to have old lady claw like hands. I treat my hands (and my chest) like I do my face, when I do my face at night, I always extend products to decolletage and hands. And nothing makes your hands feel nicer than to mix some sea salt and olive oil and give them a really good scrub.

The difference is that with running you jump from leg to leg, and actually leave the ground. That is where the extra calorie burn comes from. Not that incline walking isnt a good workout. My easier days are often a hill program on the treadmill! But again its inherent, those are my "easy" days. So incline walking is easier to me than running. I do it to save my body the constant pounding that running every single day gives. This isnt a thread to bash any form of exercise by the way, if walking challenges your fitness and you get a good sweat up from it, then its right for you. Its simply to debunk the myth that walking and jogging burn the same calories. That myth compares walking and running the same distance and incline. For sure though, a tough incline walk (and a good hill can send my heartrate into the stratosphere) no doubt burns more calories than an easy flat slow jog!

technically you would think its a mushy, but cereal and several other mushy things are quite hard for me to eat. Pureed fruit is a killer for me! Cereal tends to give me a bit of discomfort but I do still eat it because I like it and it gives me the wholegrain carbs I need to run.

You can see my port now that I'm at a normal weight, but you need to be lookign for it. You can feel it really easily though, its a hard lump. It certainly doesnt bother me enough though to want to open up the scar (for a low profile one) and wait another 3 years for that to become invisible! Mine is diagonally left above the navel, over to the left by about 2 inches and about 4 inches up. Everything I wear is lowish rise anyway, I dont have any clothes where the waistbands come over my navel, I've never found that comfortable. So my port never hits anything and its well below the bra line by a good 4 inches. If your port is hitting the bra, there's a good chance it wont after weight loss because now when I sit, there's no rolls of flesh to bunch up, your stomach will stay flat and your port wont be bothered by your bra.

It doesnt sound like any sort of bone injury. Running is an insane sport. The first five minutes of any run I do involve runnign through various aches and pains. I always have pain in my heel when I wake up, not severe, just a pulling in the right heel, its some sort of plantar fascia thing. I ran 14.5kms yesterday and could barely walk for the rest of the day, but my knee is fine again today. I find I have to "manage" running. I must take rest days, I must do long runs, short runs, tempo runs, not the same thing all the time. I keep my mileage lowish most of the time, anything under 10kms at a time my body handles fine and I dont get injuried, I've not done a half marathon yet because my body protests a lot the minute I increase the mileage and I'm very very cautious with that. I would say I've had minor foot problems with my right foot since I started but I get a bit of acupuncture, I take time off if I get really sore, I look after it and to be honest, I had this problem beofre I had the band, so its actually improved. But I dont think I'll ever run without some sort of symptoms. But I cant walk either, walking really hurts my back. I jsut figure I'd rather be thin and fit with a few minor problems than be fat and inactive with major ones. But I would never run through real pain or if I really had an injury.

Oh, yes, we have a public system allright, but if you dont have money and private health insurance, you still dont have access to the same type of health care as those who do. You cant necessarily get an elective surgery done when you want to on the public system. But the situation currently is that in many areas you simply cannot get a lapband done in a public hospital because all the surgeons that do them operate in the private sector. So there's noone to do it in many cases. And if you go self pay it will cost you over $10,000. So even though I'll bet money it wont end up being free becuase surgeons will simply charge more than the scheduled fee, it will mean that perhaps someone can go self pay and be done privately for only a few thousand dollars. And more surgeons will probably do self pay patients (currently many wont) because with medicare coverage it means the patient is likely to be responsible about their aftercare and be able to afford any revision surgery. So its a good thing. But the really big difference in our systems is that if you DO have private health insurance, you dont have to prove your right to a certain surgery. If a surgeon will do it, you're covered and most policies cover most things apart from cosmetic surgery. So there's no jumping through hoops prostituting yourself for the insurance companies. You pay your premiums, you get the coverage.

Its this low heart rate burns more fat theory Fanny. People just latch onto that because it gives them a reason not to work hard. Its pretty much accepted by the public as truth. If I posted that out on the general forum, it would not be popular!.

You'll still want private health insurance though - can you IMAGINE the public waiting lists once its fully covered? Just becuase its covered doesnt mean you wont have to wait five years on some list or other to get in to have it done. So many will still want to go private so that they're done when they want to be with whom they want to be. And that means of course that surgeons will charge way more than the scheduled fee so there will be a gap in what medicare covers and what you pay. Same as how it costs zip to have a baby in a public hospital but costs those of us who have private health insurance several thousand dollars. I mean, I went to the gynae the other week for 5 minutes, cost me $165 and I only got $65 back! So whilst its great news and something we need, and its for a reasonable bmi of 30+, I suspect it will be far from free for many people. You'll either pay more than Medicare will cover or wait for a loooooong time.

DH is experiencing this a little, he was banded June 6 and has only lost about 14lb. But to be brutal, from observing him, it doesnt really surprise me. He's obviously waiting for the band to do the work, he's eating things just because he can, and then crying "how come I can still eat pizza" and he's doing no exercise. I was a low BMIer at a BMI of almost 36, I lost tons of weigth early on. I was very very lucky, I had really good restriction at first. But I was also very strict on my diet and I began to exercise the day I came home from hospital. It can be done, its harder when you dont have that good restriction and once you get it it WILL kick in for you, and the weight will start to come off. But until then, you know what you *should* be doing, make sure you're honest about the degree to which you're doing it and realise that it wont be this hard forever. The fills will help you eventually. What you're going through is not at all uncommon, just frustrating.

Lol, yeah perhaps substitute Peanut Butter or something? Vegemite is an acquired taste, but you eat a tiny tiny scraping of it on toast, you dont slather it on! Even most Aussies would gag at that. I dont get the Protein shake thing, man those are disgusting! What I've never figured with breakfast on the run, etc, is that if I just dont eat it, I am way less hungry and eat less all day. I know its good for me so I eat it, but I really do better with no breakfast. Much less afternoon munchies.

Those things have come along the way for me, I remember the purchase of my first pair of jeans in a normal store for example. Last year I did the short, funky hair cut and got rid of the hair I'd been hiding behind for years. And truly, I dont think the *end* ever comes. I'm STILL thinking oh, just 2 or 3 more kgs. You never go off this diet, so there's no end point. Truly, I dont have one ultimate goal. But I guess a boob job would qualify, although I'm far from sure I'm going to do it yet.

The thing about high Protein diets that worries me is that it may eventually be proven that its the most effective way to lose fat. that doesnt mean that its the best for your overall health. I think its important not to lose sight of that. No point being superbly conditioned if you're dying of bowel cancer, or you have kidney stones. Balance is the key I think. Enough protein but not too much. And I dont know about anything else but I cant run a half marathon without carbs. I eat carbs, I run. I'm not fat anymore. Its all the proof I need.

1500 a day was always good for me, a good balance between losing weight and still getting in a good variety of nutrients every day. I still eat about that now I'm maintaining. I never went "off" my diet, its more so that my weight loss just eventually slowed then stopped. Thankfully that happened at a healthy weight, lol! I dont function well on less, my energy levels dip and I cant run as well.

I seem to differ in that solid Proteins (whilst they do fill me quickly) arent as effective for me as wholegrains in keeping me satisfied. So I eat bread, rice, Pasta and cereals. I personally think that's a healthier diet all round anyway. So I dont worry about Protein so much. If I have a sandwich for lunch, I stay full for hours. If I have a salad with some tuna, I'm hungry in half an hour. So I eat the sandwich.

This has been argued quite a lot on here, it particularly arises when people make comments like "my ideal body weight is 140lb but I have 190lb of muscle right now, so I dont need to go that low". Wrong. As you lose weight, you WILL lose muscle, no matter what you do. Even if you pump Iron. Your body simply will not need as much to carry you around. You can be much more muscular at the end of your journey but still not have 190lb of muscle left. What you want to end up with is a good lean body ratio at the end of it. And to do that you need to protect your muscle with exercise. But there's also a lot of guff out there about how cardio wastes muscle away and how you have to scoff Protein all day every day. I can tell you I eat a carb based diet and run for exercise and I'm more toned and muscular than I've ever had in my life, and a totally different shaped body to boot. My legs are like iron, and my stomach muscles are so strong, heck, even my upper body has nice definition now but I can guarantee there's physically less muscle there than there was when I had to haul 245lb around every day. So eat well, be active, that's all it takes. Pumping iron will obviously give you even more muscle, and its great for you, so if you enjoy it, do it! Even though you will lose muscle as you lose weight (you never lose just fat) its the ratio of muscle to fat on your body that's important and there's no reason why you cant improve that with weight loss. So even with less actual weight of muscle on you 100lb from now, you can be MORE muscular and have a better body composition. Does that make sense? It sounds confusing to me and I know what I mean!

I agree. I'm a daily weigher but I dont panic about plateaus and small gains. They just motivate me to stay focussed. Because I know that I cannot gain 2lb of fat in one day, nor can I lose 2lb of fat in one day. I also plateaued out for long periods of time during my losing phase, and I never lost 2lb per week for any stretch of time. I still go there in the end.

I wasnt even that heavy by comparative standards, with a BMI of 36 AND I'm tall as well. Yet I had to lose a good 30lb before my clothing size truly changed and before people started noticing. I must have packed it in well!

American surgeons (and mexican ones too) seem to me to really like rules. They really like to tell people what they should be eating and how much. Not that that's a bad thing, by a long shot. But all this half cup, this much Protein, that much Water etc. But its not so much like that here. My literature says "do not eat to the point where you induce discomfort or nausea". Which to me makes perfect sense. The amount you can eat changes with fills. Some people can eat a cup, some people NEED more food than others. Why tell everyone they must eat 1000 calories a day when I lost perfectly well on 1500? If you are eating, then stay satisfied for a few hours and keep losing weight then whether that's 1/2 cup or 2 cups, its obviously not too much is it? When you stop losing that's when you need a fill so that you can decrease portion sizes again. So yeah, the guidelines are quite liberal here, but rely a lot on people to use their common sense. We KNOW that we shouldnt base our meals on ice cream and we know that a 3 cup serve of ice cream is too much!

Being tall, a BMI of 35 and just plain lucky (no stretchmarks or loose skin after 3 pregnancies) I got away with it *just*. I'm flabbier than I'd like to be and that is loose skin but I dont have oodles of hanging bits that have to be tucked in. Its 99.9% certain you will have some, its just what happens. But its not always terrible.

For breakfast on the run, I take a piece of vegemite toast and a cup of coffee in the car. At home, I tend to eat a wholegrain cereal and I kind of carry it round the house with me as I get read, it might take me half an hour to actually eat it. I usually put some sliced banana on too.

A bathing suit is ALWAYS worth a decent spend. You will never regret buying a great one. I may be lucky enough to be able to wear a bikini but believe me I cannot simply walk into a store and buy any old one. I have to buy for the "larger" figure even though I'm not a larger figure at all. But teeny triangle tops and really ultra hipster bottoms, nuh uh, not a good look on a 40 year old. Forget flimpsy bathing suits from Target too, a decent suit here in Australia is going to cost $150 but its SO worth it. Decent coverage with the top, bust enhancing padding etc, good quality thicker fabric, double lining, all of it just pulls you together so much and can make you look really lovely in your suit even if you're not perfect. Add a nice soft fake tan and you can hold your head high.

About 9 months after surgery I started having issues with monthly pain on using my bowels and backpain started then too. I never had heavy periods but they got heavier, for me. I also hadnt had period pain or PMT since before I had my first baby and that all started again. Turns out I've developed endometriosis (have it on my sciatic nerve too). Probably sparked by weight loss to a degree but we have a very strong family history of it also, turns out I didnt entirely escape it. It *could* be a coincidence too though, at 40, my cycles are bound to start changing sooner or later. Thank goodness it struck me at 38, AFTER I'd had all the babies I wanted!