Jachut

What he said.

Oh, yes, I thought that all the time. I was so embarrassed that the real me was hidden in such a disgusting body and personality wise too, it just isnt like me to lose control of something like I did my weight. I'm an efficient go getter type of a person who makes the things I want to happen happen, and that really was the source of my shame about my weight, not how I looked. I used to have bad dreams that I'd run into people from work before I had my children and they'd snigger about how fat I'd gotten, how I'd "let myself go" with motherhood etc etc. Now, I feel so great I'd LOVE to run into people from my past and not only because of my weight but about other stuff I've achieved since I decided to get my shit together.

It was never mentioned to me, but I knew it was a possibility, I never thought I'd lose all this weight and have perfect skin and body. My doc could certainly refer me onto someone but I suspect I'd get a lecture, as the size/expense/discomfort of the surgery far outweighs the size problem I have. But I'll go ahead and get my boobs done, I dont really consider it has anything to do with my lap band surgeon anyway, thats my own personal business to organise as I see fit. I go to him to discuss my lap band not my tits.

Stress - definitely The week before my period - definitely danger time, eat VERY carefully Other times - with no apparent rhyme nor reason I can suddenly get tight for a week or so.

I follow the rules I was given, but they're different to your rules in America. I was told to eat a balanced diet of all food groups, based on the healthy food pyramid, to strive for a "normal" lifestyle which means treats like alcohol and chocolate are part of life on occasion and to get plenty of exercise, in any form I liked. I've done that, its easy to follow the rules when there really arent any, lol. I dont do protein first, I dont count protein, I dont count calories, I eat moderate amounts of sugar, I eat a lot of healthy carbs, I dont drink x ounces of Water a day, I dont ever touch Protein shakes because I was never told to do any of those things. I dont have an eating plan, I dont have down to the letter instructions from a personal trainer, I dont have a fill schedule I can get a big one or a small one as I feel I need it whenever I feel I need it, I'm driving this band and was only instructed to use it as I see fit. I agree with the previous poster, to me, these things all signify tiresome dieting rules which got me where I was in the first place, I've thrown them out the window and now I just eat and live like a thin person. I guess the most different think I would do than most of you, is where one previous poster says if she felt she wasnt going to be able to finish the meal, she'd leave the rest and eat the protein. I'd leave the protein and eat the veges. I do veges first, I think they're the most important.

To some degree this behaviour will be with some of us forever. I can identify with the feelings, the reasons and the binges, although mine were never as big as some describe. That doesnt matter, I still ate mountains of terrible food in an effort to stifle something. I ate inappropriately, till I was stuffed and I felt simply awful about it but was powerless to stop. I still dont know what my reason/s were. I still do it, but like Jack says, when i choose to just do it anyway its hardly what an unbanded person would call a binge. I can however eat an entire packet of Cookies still! And I can eat most of a family block of chocolate. I've done so on occasion. But when it's done much much less frequently it doesnt affect my weight. I just accept it, its going to happen, I know I eat like that when I'm stressed out. Something about being fit and thin though has given me a real respect for my body and the desire to treat it like that has lessened amazingly, I'd get the urge to have a bit of a pig out maybe once every two months now, not daily. I just go with it. I'm a former fat person, I will ALWAYS be a former fat person and that means I've got some issues around food that many people dont have and I dont really think I'll ever solve them. But not everyone out there is walking around normal weight because they're completely sane and have no food issues! And I figure I dont smoke and I'm not an alcoholic, eating was my thing, for other's its something different. I'm not a lesser person because of it. Being banded DOES help this disorder, it really does. It doesnt cure it but it gives you the strength to take a breath and see what you're doing to yourself.

If you feel great at 210, that's terrific, the only reason you'd push for 170 is that statistically, that will place you at lower risk of weight related disease, depending on your BMI - and for most women, BMI of 210 is still going to be obese. It is for me and I'm 5ft 10. But there's more to life than being obsessed about numbers, and if you look and feel great and live a healthy active lifestyle at that weight, then fantastic. I changed my goal as I sat at 79kg for aaaaaaages. Its was *just* normal BMI and I figured I'd done well to get there. That was about 15 months ago and I'm now 10kg lighter, its just come off really really really slowly without my really trying. So you may find you get there in the end without undue effort anyway.

I wouldnt have a surgery I didnt really want just because my insurance covered it, particularly when it came to rerouting my insides. If it were me, I'd figure that I'd put so much into the band so far, but that its's not four separate problems, just a lot of dicking around to fix one really. I'd go the larger band if its truly what they're advising and be positive and optimistic that I'd had my fair share of trouble and from now on it was going to be right. But you know, I'd get a second opinion just personally. But I would never have even considered a gastric bypass (not that they do them here in australia any more) so I am biased by that.

I found a name for my problem! I have tear trough deformity, lol. A bit of filler should take care of it. Or maybe a new head. Too bad I have 3 kids, a mortgage, private school fees to pay and am 18 months finishing my degree. Which at the rate I'm going now (4 essays due next monday, ergh) I should look about 100 on a good day! I'm also beginning to believe the theory that running ruins your face (and I'm a walking example of how bad it is for your boobs). Dr Schulman, how long do fillers like restalyne really last in the eye area?

You dont have to give up carbs - just try to avoid the white processed ones. I've eaten carbs the entire way through, in any given day I'm likely to eat a Cereal like muesli and a slice of wholegrain bread and I certainly dont avoid Pasta, potato or rice either. But if that's a typical dinner for you, your diet needs a major overhaul, you'll never lose weight eating foods that heavy and stodgy without balancing it out with lots of fresh vegies. Just the tuna, or just the egg or even a bit of each plus a large salad would have been a way better choice. Or put some tuna between the bread if you love bread, along with some salad veges. Eating carbs like bread has not hurt my weight loss one single bit and I will need to see a LOT more evidence before I believe they arent wholesome healthy foods full of fibre and Vitamins (I dont eat crap supermarket white bread by the way). But they're hard to eat and we dont need a diet loaded with carbs at every meal, I'd tend to choose a sandwich for lunch (but cant eat a whole one). Dinner would be much better as a piece of lean Protein (chicken, fish, red meat) a small serve of a carb like half a potato and some steamed veges. But a slice of pizza AND a sandwich with a lap band, that would take some doing. You either need more fill or there may be something wrong. Have you had any symptoms like fills being totally ineffective, do you have any symptoms of restriction or are you pushing past feeling full and need to conquer head hunger? its no mystery why you havent lost weight eating like that, but what you might need help with is why you can eat like that. Good luck, I hope you get it sorted.

If you're pbing with any regularity you're too tight. Also being only able to do mushies would concern me - after a while, its so so easy to slip into eating junk foods - ice cream, chocolate, Cookies etc. It can be really hard finding the balance between good appetite control from your band and being too tight, but its always better to err on the side of being looser and follow traditional dieting tactics like filling up on salad, steamed veges and fruit, etc. Then follow with a strict no eating between meals rule, that always works for me. Being too tight is thought to be not good for your band - there's not proof but credible opinion that you run the risk of streching out your pouch, slipping and eroding by being very tight for a very long time. And once you start mucking around taking Fluid in and out to get it right, then it seems very common to struggle with this forever after. If you can stay looser and leave your band alone, avoid constant fills and unjfills you'll be better off. That doesnt mean you have to be really loose so the band is hardly helping you though. And it might be better to commit to a few weeks or even a month or two of extreme caution with your band to lose a bit more weight and loosen it off than it is to unfill it as long as you're not PBing all the time.

You shouldnt still be eating after an hour - most people, if they eat slowly enough, will find their band starts to let food through and after a certain period of time, it can happen than you can just keep eating. After about 20 minutes, finish eating and try to not eat till the next meal. You probably would do well to strictly observe the not eating and drinking together rule too. My doc gave me no eating plan either, they dont in Australia, its just an eat healthy foods in small portions policy. That should work, but sometimes our bodies dont work like they should be working. Do you exercise? My DH is about to be banded and I have been riding him on this, because I can see that he will be a VERY slow loser unless he really makes a commitment to hard exercise - because he got fat in the first place eating what I consider a quite normal amount of food for a 6ft 3 male. Sitting at a desk all day is his problem. Good luck, hopefully with a few tweaks you can get things moving but if not I would be checking out stuff like your thyroid.

3 meals works best for me, I appreciate the theories on small meals five times a day but for me, I just end up eating way more that way.

Oh, I hear your frustration. I deny it but deep down I know that all my running is the reason for my back pain. I am thankful beyond belief that I have no disc degeneration or pathology, its entirely postural/muscular in my case, and one day there is a small glimmer of hope that someone will be able to help me with it. But I know that I feel better after about two weeks of no running, all that awful knee back and foot pain I have on rising disappears. But I cant stop, I'm afraid of weight gain yes, but that's not really it. I truly love running. I will have to face it sooner or later, my hope is that I can run just enough to be able to participate in races, and go to the gym the rest of the time - so maybe run no more than twice a week. Its all you can do, suffer the discomfort (which is what I choose for now) or find an alternative.

Short term its not going to hurt you, your body has plenty of reserves of everything.

I'd see a doctor if I were you, I'm sorry to hear you're in so much pain but if you'd liken it to childbirth, that's a bit of a worry. Seriously, I would say my pain was about a one, I went home from hospital and went for a long walk. Hopefully, you're just suffering particularly badly from gas.

I've lost 120%, and I definitely agree, you get out of it what you are willing to put in. Especially when it comes to exercising.

How does it behave? Im sorry to say I have had chronic heel pain for 4 years now (after suffering about 20 years ago and having heel spurs removed from the back of my heels, not underneath where they usually are). I have no achilles tendon pain, but its the type of thing that is fine all day but painful when I get up, or make a sudden movement and the heel is tender all the time to palpate. It improved a lot with a cortisone injection some years back, but you cant do that often arounde the achilles tendon. I used to have a large swelling on the posterior aspect of my heel too. I have had HUGE relief with acupuncture, its reduced the symptoms markedly - but I doubt I will ever solve it or figure out what it actually is. I wear orthotics when I run too which does help.

Yesterday I had breakfast: a smoothie made with vanilla optifast(my DH is doing at the moment and I actually quite like it!),skim milk, 1/2 banana and mixed berries morning snack: a fruit and nut muesli bar lunch: a salad with 2 hard boiled eggs and low fat caesar dressing (lettuce, mushroom, tomato, bean sprouts, carrot and cucumber) afternoon: a hot milo (like activite or similar) dinner: a small piece of chicken breast (pan fried) and about a cup of steamed broccoli, carrot, cucumber and Beans after dinner: 3 squares of chocolate

Its worth the money to solve your weight problem forever, regardless of what you have to lose. I had a BMI of 35 and I've lost 120% of my excess weight. That statistic is a limitation on people's BEHAVIOUR, not a limitation of the lap band itself. It takes into account those who have complictions and those who have metabolic and medical problems, but mostly it takes account of people who just arent fully compliant, who dont exercise, who struggle to change their lifestyle, who face mental barriers to weight loss and most importantly people who are just plain HAPPY to be lighter and dont care much about reaching the magic normal BMI that some of us (me included) are so obsessed about. To get past about 80% lost, I did have to work pretty darn hard, I ran and ran and ran and them I ran some more. Since hitting a really comfortable goal I have been able to reduce my exercise to a level that's much more tolerable for everyday living for ever more. If I stepped it up again, I guarantee I could lose more weight. If YOU want to lose 100% of your weight and are willing to do the work you need to do to achieve that, then you will.

of course!

Same here, the trouble is that's because its all lying in a puddle underneath me, lol.

paracetamol in any form is fine. With my back, sometimes I really do have to give in and take an anti inflammatory, and my doc says this is OK on occasion, taken on an empty stomach if possible and flushed through with Water. But I stress, that's on occasion. I always take paracetamol instead if its only mild. As far as blood thinning etc, fish oil and red wine are both great for the health of your cardiovascular system and blood chemistry. Whether NSAID's really are bad for bandsters or not, they are bad for your stomach in general and I'd always try to avoid taking them where possible.

Oh, I feel for you. Torture is the only way to describe it. My DH started a few days ago before collapsing with violent vomiting from the headaches. Like me, he didnt technically have to do it, due to being a BMI of 35 and like me, he's scrapped it now, lol. Take heart though, the risk of open surgery is extremely low, my doc said 1% or less so if you're not perfect in all likelihood you havent really ruined anything.

I dont count - I pointed out in another thread that after a lifetime of dieting, I cant really help roughly adding in my head because I know the calorie count of nearly everything, lol, but that's a very inaccurate measurement and I dont do it with a goal in mind, I just do it. I really dont think the human body is MEANT to eat a certain number of calories every day - to me its no mystery that you count strictly, measure everything and then plateau out, I think it makes more sense to eat more on hungry days, eat less if you're busy or not hungry, our eating really should be all over the place to some degree. Same with it being OK to have more Protein some days than others or sometimes have a very carb filled day and sometimes not if you happen to want Pasta for dinner. Works for me, anyway, lol. Oh, and I too am a "big" eater by bandster standards, I'm up over 1500 calories a day, and I lost weight eating that much too. And I started with a BMI of 35 so its not really to do with having more than others to lose. I think that dieting behaviour is strictly personality driven and some people really can and do want to count, measure and record for ever after, which is fine, for me, that sort of thing reinforces dysfunctional food obsession and I'm way better off eating what I want, when I want it. For the most part, my choices are healthy and until I'm hungry again, I forget about food. I dont "diet".