Jachut

Well I dont consider eating junk food cheating .This is a lifestyle to me, not a diet. If I want something, I eat it. Since I took away the good food/bad food idea, I've rarely binged on anything, like a choc chip cookie or two is enough. Its only when you deny yourself things that they have power over you. Well for me anyway!

I'd be getting in as much exercise as I could to make up for the few days break to follow!

Hmmmm, I did the Run for the Kids in Melbourne today (14.14 kms, phew) and I'm pretty sure I followed a DSer, lol. Boy someone in the crowd ahead of me overdid the curry and beer last night! Myself, I only farted once! And it of course smelled like a spring garden. I had my headphones on at the time so I hope to goodness it wasnt audible. But you cant run your best time holding your butt cheeks together.

That annoys me SO much. I mean, I couldnt stick to a diet like that in a month of Sundays, and I've lost 115% of my excess weight! To be perfectly frank, I'd tell any surgeon who treats people like that to stuff his lap band up his bum. We are not there to be humiliated, disciplined or tested and whether or not you can stick to a completely ridiculous diet that neither the surgeon or the nutritionist could probably do themselves is completely irrelevant and not at all predictive about how successful you'll be with a band. That's just cruelty!

I really coudlnt remember now, I lost 40kg or so all up. I remember I did tend to lose for about a month after a fill and then stop, and I lost a good half of that weight in the first eight months or so, it took me about 16 months to lose the rest.

There's loads around if you know where to find them For example Swimwear - Bella Forma Pretty Big Bras & Swimwear in Large Bra Cup Sizes D to JJ I know its an Australian site, but they ship. Also google Seafolly, they do awesome swimwear and nearly always include a larger busted option in their bikini tops. I'm wearing a Seafolly suit in my avatar and that top is marvellous - it has no wiring but gives great coverage, good lift and stays in place! They're expensive but all double lined, really great quality, which ALWAYS looks better on than cheaper suits.

I havent had a fill for a year now, but from memory, I had 3 fills, taking me from 0 to 2 ml in a 4ml band at 8 weeks post surgery, 12 weeks post surgery and 16 weeks post surgery. Then I went about four months between the next three which took me up to 3ml. And 3ml has been sitting nicely for me for almost a year now.

This is probably the one area of my body (the backs of my thighs) where I'd really spend money to fix. And all the advice I've had has been that liposuction is not an effective way of getting rid of cellulite, particularly on thighs that are somewhat loosish as a result of weight loss. I was told by a PS that I would have to go a lower body lift to lift the whole area and THEN have some lipo fine tuning, because lipo also creates loose skin just like weight loss does. And then I was advised strongly against it becuase I dont have a particularly bad problem anyway, my bum just looks like the average 40 year old's, lol. Meaning it aint pert and pretty but its not vomit inducing either. Cellulite is a curse and there's no effective treatment for it yet. I even noticed in certain light that I have some on my arms STILL and my arms are skinny!

Its the Enell one Oprah swears by isnt it? They're only available online here, and to me, they just didnt appeal coz they're so huuuuuuuge. Neck to knee huge, lol. I like a bra that's a regular style bra, I swear by the Berlei Sports bra. Berlei's an aussie brand though and no doubt you'd probably only find them online there, a bra is one thing that I will only buy online if I can try it on in real life. The Berlei ones are very good but I've never been bigger than an E cup. When I was bigger and to a large extent now (I'm a D now) I find a bra and then a sports top with a fairly supportive shelf bra inside it good for running. Or if you wear a larger Tshirt, wear a good sports bra and then one of the pull on type sports bras on top of it. Two underwired bras together (which I've been advised to do at times) only equals major chafing and injuries from the wire.

Not Water, wine, lol. I dont really pay much attention to when I technically can and cant drink. I dont down lots of Fluid with a meal because as banded life went on and I got more fill, I eventually couldnt anyway. And I never did drink a lot with meals, but I usually have a glass of wine going with dinner and I like a coffee right after I finish eating. I've just carried on with that, and well, yeah I'm 155lb now, so obviously it doesnt always make a difference. You will find that you may not be ABLE to though and like everything else, what you thought you'd miss becomes quite abhorrent to you when you begin to associate it with discomfort.

yes, you dont lose fat cells, you just kind of empty them out. But you can create new ones easily enough. One of the great injustices of life. Lipo does remove them permanently though. I'm not sure whether simply HAVING the fat cells there empty makes you more prone to gaining - I dont know if they're metabolically active, like if they create any hormones or chemicals that make you eat more or make you process calories more efficiently. But the fact that you have them for life makes me very determined to try to help my kids not get fat in the first place!

I havent had an experience that has really stressed or traumatised me mentally but I did Atkins once for six weeks. My god, that was the most horrid experience of my life. I found it a disgusting way to eat. It really turned my stomach, the food was so revolting I didnt WANT to eat it which is why I lost so much weight. All I could envisage was my arteries filling up with saturated animal fat. I looked awful, I felt disgusting - my skin broke out, my hair was lank and greasy and I looked exhausted and grey. I had no energy, I felt sick the entire time - and I didnt even do the induction phase, my mum wouldnt let me. I was put on it by a nutritionist at the age of 16 when I broke my hip because I was 84kg at the time, which was about five kgs overweight for my height. I lost about 10kgs in that six week period but it wasnt healthy weight, it looked awful, it all went from round my neck and I looked gaunt, I got down to 73 kg which is only a bit more than I am now, but I looked about 10 years older than I do now. After I started getting argumentative, agressive and well, psychotic, my mother made me stop. I put on 14kg in 3 weeks. Nobody will ever convince me that Atkins is healthy, sane or a good way to eat.

I could really use a lift, well I needed on prior to losing weight! Not sure if I will or not though. I probably will, but it will depend on factors such as when we can afford it and when I can afford the time for recovery, I think maybe towards the end of 2009. I've had a few consults, the basic advice has been I'd get great improvement but my major worry, which is the flaccid, stretchmarked skin on the top of my breasts, wont be totally fixed without an implant to fill out the skin, giving me huge breasts again, which I very definitely dont want. But with boobs, bras work miracles. There's so many good things on the market now, any bra with that side and under padding (quite thick) pushes em together and gives me cleavage I can show off. Any regular bra just kind of pushes them up and they just sort of "puddle" and dont look very attractive. I even have these swimsuit shapers that make them look really good in a bikini top. So I'm kind of meh, can I be bothered with a lift? But in the scheme of things, for us, its not a whole lot of money so maybe I will.

I couldnt live without coffee. However I have learned to like instant coffee well enough, I do tend to drink about five cups of coffee a day and if that were espresso, I'd hate to think how much caffeine I'd be consuming. So I tend to have maybe one bought coffee a day, a latte or long black with a splash of cold milk, I really dislike all the fluffy confectionary style coffees on the market these days. And I'd have 2 cups of regular instant coffee in the morning and decaf for the rest of the day. We've got a great percolator, makes beautiful coffee but we dont drink it regularly - too strong, we save it for dinner parties etc.

I can with care, and I do, daily! Bread and heavy grains (wholemeal Pasta, brown rice etc) are for me the best foods to make my band work like it should. They are the foods that fill me quickly and sit for a long time, keeping me satisfied. Protein foods dont really work like that to me. If I ate half a chicken breast for lunch, I'd be looking for more food within the hour. So I base my diet on wholegrains with a slightly lesser emphasis on protein. It gives me lots of energy to run. I really puzzle over this. So many people say bread is what made them fat and I cant argue with that, so many people lose better on lower carb diets. What is it about my body that enables me to eat a carb based diet and still lose and maintain? I wonder does it have anything to do with the fact that I never got morbidly obese, I had to work quite hard to get to a BMI of 35 and it took a lot of years, lol, (dirty job but someone has to do it right?) and never exhibited any of those symptoms of Syndrome X - like high cholesterol, weight around the middle, menstrual disorders etc?

My intake for today was: Breakfast was a granola bar (Carmen's, delish) Mid morning I took the kids to the shops, I had a peice of raisin toast and a small skinny latte (a latte here is 1/3 espresso, 2/3 steamed milk, in a small glass, not a big fancy confectionary drink). lunch was a Peanut Butter sandwich Afternoon snack was a peeled, sliced apple dinner was corned silverside, mashed potato/sweet potato and broccoli and carrots. And 1/2 glass of red wine. With a couple of instant coffees thrown in here and there.

Good advice Boo!

They reckon those undies are airtight. Do you think they'd inflate over the course of a day?

Its true. Even carb lover that I am, I get the guilts at thinking Cereal for Breakfast, sandwich for lunch, a piece of fruit mid morning and mid afternoon and then meat and 3 veg for dinner. But you add it up and I struggle to get it all in and make 1500 calories. Because whilst I dont stick to just half a cup, its not large quanities and I usually cant finish a *whole* sandwich, the cereal really is the 1/2 cup serving recommended on the box, fruit takes me a good half hour to eat etc. Add up a huge latte or two (skim milk of course), half a packet of tim tams, a big bowl of Soup, bits and pieces of stuff like nuts, cheese and biscuits, sultanas etc during the day, a glass of wine or even two at night and half the dinner that I cant eat anyway because I was picking all afternoon, only to get hungry and eat something at 9 pm and WHOA, before I know it, its over 2000 calories. All done in little tiny quanities. Half a cup really means very little. Its what you eat that really counts, if you eat GOOD food in reasonable portions you'll lose - although for some "reasonable" does mean half a cup. That's perhaps where the band isnt as good as other surgeries unless you're a burger and pizza addict, if you like Cookies and chips, you wont even have to TRY to fit those in ,they go down a dream and look out if your drug of choice is ice cream or chocolate.

Hmmm, I have at times noticed that I've lost a pound or two during a quite couple of weeks - havent run ALL this week for example, am scarfing down carb foods because I'm resting and carb loading for a longdistance run on Sunday. I've lost 2lb. I think there's a few things to it - but the main one I find is that unless I'm very careful to keep up my carb intake with good wholegrains, running makes me hungrier and I eat more crap. It does burn a lot of energy and your body needs to fuel it, I find emptying out the tank completely and not replacing it jsut leads to sugar cravings, and bad food choices. I can eat and eat and eat Cookies seeking energy for example. And perhaps you do let go of a little Water or something when you take a break from exercise too? I'd hardly think you'd lose 3lb of muscle in a week or two. I always marvel at the Biggest Loser how they work and work and work to win the week's weigh in. I would think that if you're talking pure "weight" loss then to avoid working out (and gaining muscle) just starve on some Atkins type diet and let all your lean muscle melt away with your fat? I reckon anyone who did that for a week would probably win the weigh in!

How did you pick your weight loss goal? It wasnt too hard as I hadnt been obese all my adult life. I knew what I felt and looked like at about 75kg - although when I was that weight, I always wanted to get down to 67kg. Or in American terms, lol, I know what I felt and looked like at 170lb and Always wanted to be about 145 lb. I'm 5ft 10. I set 75kg as my official goal because everyone told me it was unrealistic to aim for less than that. Phooey. I knew I'd never stop there. For me also, having never been morbidly obese, reaching a maximum of BMI 35, there was no way I was being told that I'd be satisfied with a BMI that was merely overweight or even "just" normal. I really wanted to do much better than that. I guess I really did pick a size too - becuase I knew at 75kg I couldnt wear an Aussie size 12, that I'd have to go 5kg or so lower. I definitely had size in mind. - Do you have the same goal you did when you started? No, I've had a long breather at about 70kg but I'm going to get to 67kgs. - Did you go with the weight suggested by your clinic, or pick something higher or lower, and if so, why? Picked something MUCH lower. I thought the nutritionist saying that I'd never get to 70kg was complete bullsh*t. What on earth would SHE know about what I can and cant do, she'd never met me. Bugger the statistics. I'd just had weight loss surgery! I wouldnt have done that if I wasnt determined to get spectacular results. My doc never set a goal for me at all, he gave me the average stats and said "but that's completely up to you".

Well I'd rather have my eyeballs impaled on flaming toothpics than do Atkins, I am an avid anti lowcarber, lol. I've eaten "normally" throughout the entire process meaning I think a sandwich for lunch is a healthy well rounded meal - a bit of Protein, some salad veg and 2 nice pieces of wholegrain bread. Filling but a good meal. So maintenance is no different. There's no food groups to reintroduce, and no feeling of deprivation and that FINALLY I can have those foods again or anythign like that. My weight loss just petered out naturally, so I havent really adjusted calories at all. I jsut dont say no to the odd treat nowadays. I still have exercise goals - I am trainign to do my first half marathon and just started back at the gym, and I still have body goals. I've got 26% body fat and would like that to be more like 24% but I'm no longer consumed by what I eat everyday or by losing actual weight.

Honestly, I havent had to. I jsut dont say "no" to stuff as often as I did whilst losing, so I've probably just increased my calorie intake of bad foods, lol, but I dont eat enormous amounts of them. I no longer avoid a glass of red at night (which is GREAT for your cardiovascular health), I dont avoid carbs at all, I put butter on my toast if I feel like it, kind of thing. My weight's remained perfectly stable.

Yes, but I knew I would. I felt I "had" to set a reasonable goal, not an overly ambitious one because everyone told me so. But I knew 75kg wouldnt be allright, that's almost 170lb. At 5ft 10, I knew I'd be healthy weight but I woudlnt call myself "slender" at that weight. I want to be more like 145. ATM I'm in the mid 150's. My build is naturally quite thin and unless I am light, at my height I just tend to look "big".

My god, that forum is like a car crash - you dont want to look but you cant tear your eyes away! I've been reading it all morning.