Jachut

Well, I have to be honest, my appetite for unhealthy foods post surgery has been very similar to what it was pre surgery - as in, I want to indulge just as often, but I fill up MUCH quicker when I do. The biggest thing is that that craving, or appetite, disappears when you feel absolutely satisfied and full, so you may still get the urges but you are unlikely to overeat when you do eat! I could eat an entire packet of chocolate biscuits, now 3 feels like the same sort of pig out, if you get what I mean. So you get comparable satisfaction for much less food. You will stop, believe me. Also the chewing you have to do, I swear that's one of the biggest reasons why the band works. Its amazing how satisfying small amounts of food are when you dont just inhale it like you used to. I cannot say I've EVER felt deprived of one single thing I've wanted. For about 4 months after surgery, I had little appetite, much like being on Tenuate or Duromine - just no interest.. Over time it came back, but its not as out of control as it was. Most of it is head hunger, and I find that I must be careful to eat ENOUGH with a lap band - I must have meals with a good mix of Protein and low GI carbs or I get cravings for rubbish like Cookies and cake. I do better when I eat a snack morning and afternoon regardless of physical hunger too, a small, well planned intake regularly throughout the day really makes a difference to me, whereas a tiny Breakfast, a few crackers and cheese for lunch and I can guarantee I'll be raiding the biscuit barrel by 4pm. I also find when I get that "ooh, I want to eat something" feeling, a really big drink of Water often solves it. I think the head hunger really does persist for many of us, but the true appetite that went with it is gone so it really is easier to resist. Nowadays, I get regular, physical hunger, my body works like it SHOULD. I get hungry, I eat till I'm not hungry. Sometimes, like everyone else out there, I eat when I'm not hungry, and I eat things that arent absolutely healthy. But that never hurt anyone in moderate quantity.

By pure chance I had had a liver ultrasound just prior to my first consult with my surgeon. When I went to my GP, and asked him for a referral to a lap band surgeon, he sent me off on a barrage of tests (which actually saved a lot of time for me), one of which was a liver ultrasound. So I knew that my liver was within normal limits, therefore my surgeon told me there was no need to do the Optifast. Well, I thought I'd get a head start on weight loss, after 3 days I was passing out, lol. I kept fainting. Cheating on Optifast isnt failing! YOu need to try to stick to it for obvious reasons but its hard hard hard and absolutely no indication of how you will do after surgery. I couldnt stick to it unless I had a gun to my head, knowing my liver was OK for surgery, well there was no way I could stick to it!

That's right. I mean, I actually did housework today instead of sitting on the computer (well, not ON the computer, lol) stuffing my fat face. Whoda thunk it? Funny, when you drop a lot of those sedentary habits - internet surfing, book reading, mindless TV watching, the eating habits improve. If I'm busy, I eat at meal time and designated snack time, that's it. If I'm sitting round, its pick pick pick all day. My new routine - becuase I dont want to give up my forums or reading and I still do need to study - is 15 minutes on/15 minutes off. My oven timer is on all day. 15 minutes of work - housework or study - 15 minutes of me time. I loathe housework so much and am so prone to sitting around all day mucking round on this darn computer, its the only way I can do it. I can get off when I know that I can have another shot in 15 minutes, lol.

It looks kind of like it might work. I'd wait and see if any turn up in the gym. Like ab-rollers and fit balls. They looked like a fad, but they actually do work. Strangely, no ab lounges in the gym, lol. Anything that enables you to work your abs whilst protecting your back is probably a good bet. As long as you use it, its a big thing that wont be easily stored. You dont want it glaring at you hatefully from its neglected corner, lol. But really, when push comes to shove, getting down on the floor and doing those darn crunches DOES work. You really dont need special equipment unless you really want it and have room for it.

Oh, I can be like a reformed smoker, I can be very prejudiced and yes, grossly overweight people sometimes disgust me. But really, there's people who are well groomed, smell good, have nice personalities and nice manners no matter what they weigh and you respond well to them, its about more than just whether they're fat or not. But I do feel like, well I sorted MY weight problem, why cant you. What really really really gets to me though, is fat attitude. I cant help it. I realise that part of becoming morbidly obese is the changes it makes in you as a person. But the old, I cant exercise because I have pain, or I have 3 kids and I work, or I cant eat right because I get too hungry, etc etc, it really bothers me. I have pain every single darn day from my back and my ankle, and I still run! I ignore it. I dont have BAD pain and some do, so I cant speak for that but people who are just so freaking lazy, who wont cook properly for themselves or look after themselves and then they go and complain because they're morbidly obese? I have absolutely no patience with it! And that's unfair because I was like that to a large degree and its taken time for me to find an efficient, energetic, go getter inside me. I was a fat blob who'd rather sit on the couch. Perhaps that disgusts me becuase I see too much of myself in it?

I cant see why you'd need to treat it any differently to having a partner of the opposite sex. I am not a lesbian but if I were your doctor, realistically, I would expect that you would simply name your partner as your next of kin if, and bring her with you as a support person if you were going to do that. As your doctor, I wouldnt wonder about it any more than I'd wonder about what my heterosexual patients get up to behind close doors - in other words, it probably wouldnt even cross my mind. I guess not eveyone feels that way but to me, there's all sorts of loving relationships out there and I couldnt give a flying you know what who your partner was or what sex. Hopefully any professional who deals with the general public, people from all walks of life and backgrounds is going to feel that way.

Nup, I'm not. Well.... I *might* have a breast lift. But I needed that BEFORE I had a band and they're no worse than they ever were. Its more that I feel why the heck not, I deserve it! I dont really have loose skin, and I lost about 90. I think, if anything, I am probably a bit more flabby or jiggly than I otherwise may have been if I'd never gotten fat, but truly, I have that body type. I am not heavily muscled despite being very fit, and I never have been, and I was always going to have cellulite by age 40! I'm not perfect, by a long shot but the scars would be WAY worse for me than the amount of jiggle I have is. I really wouldnt put myself through a tummy tuck for what it would achieve, as it is, dressed rather than in a bikini, my stomach is flat as a board.

Ugh, poor you. My kids have had gastro 3 or 4 times since I've been banded, the FIRST time was 2 days after I got home from hospital. Boy, was I in a panic. I raced myself down to the doctors and got a script for an anti nausea drug, which I took. I'm not sure if the drug had side effects or I was having panic attacks, lol, but I felt really weird. And I did catch the bug, I had a temperature, aches and pains, and diarrhoea with the cramps, cold sweats and gurgly tummy below, but no actual nausea or vomiting. The next few times, I was careful bordering on obsessive compulsive, they couldnt even breath in a room before I was disinfecting it, I went through at a conservative guess 3,000 pairs of disposable gloves, wouldnt even handle their clothes into the washing machine without gloves, bottles of that hand sanitiser stuff before and after I touched my face, and after all of that, both Doug and I managed to avoid the bugs. Most of the time you get gastro banded, you'll just be plain miserable, as normal. But it IS possible to do damage to your band with violent vomiting so its best to try to avoid it, naturally. I'm paranoid, I'm almost through my teaching degree and have also just qualified as a swimming teacher - geez, where BETTER could you go to catch bugs? A classroom full of five year olds or a swimming lesson full of them - I must be insane. Anyway, hope you feel much better and that it bypasses you next time.

Yes, true. Especially when you ARE starting out with a relatively low BMI, 60% of your excess weight will have you looking pretty darn normal wont it?

Here's a little something to think about too. I was chatting to my surgeon outside of an actual medical appointment as I was involved in a lap band seminar last night. I was saying I dont feel really qualified to talk at these seminars because I feel like I wasnt truly that much of a "fat person". Meaning I did not struggle with obesity all through my childhood or teens, or even early adulthood. Oh, I was always well padded, probably always had a BMI of about 28, never the thin one, never felt great about myself, but I was not really fat. I got fatter very quickly in those few years after having babies and felt I'd gone too far to rectify it without surgical help, which I'm ever grateful for having been able to get. So I was severely obese for a period of about six years. In that time, I was in my 30's. When I got banded I had not lost my physical fitness, I was for sure beginning to feel the drag of being obese, I felt crap actually, but no real comorbidities had set in, although I was getting borderline for things like cholesterol and hypertension. So when I was banded, with a BMI of 36, and reasonable fitness, I was able to get straight into the running. But I said to him that I felt like I couldnt really understand the plight of the morbidly obese, I dont know what its like to be that overweight, I dont know what its like to not have the fitness to do whatever you want to do, not be able to buy clothes anywhere, not to fit in seats etc, and I found my weight literally melted off, and all the exercise has totally changed my body composition, it was just so darn easy basically. And now I've maintained absolutely effortlessly for six months, not to mention I lost weight on a relatively large 1500 to 1800 calories a day. My surgeon's feeling on this, and why he will band people of a BMI of even as low as 30 but most usually 35 and up, is that the longer and more overweight you have been, the more it damages your body in some way, that very obese people really do NOT often hit a "normal" BMI because they would have to starve to do it. Their metabolisms are forever altered, so had I ever hit a BMI of say 45, I would probably have to eat HALF what I eat now to maintain my weight. His experience has been that all his lower BMI patients like myself have lost weight easily, without nearly as many head issues, fill issues and plateau issues, have all without exception reached a NORMAL BMI of under 25 and have all so far maintained that loss. For the majority of his patients, who fall within the morbidly obese category, the depressing stats are the 50 to 60% of excess weight lost in 2 years that you read about all the time, with a lot more issues and difficulty along the way. Really a GREAT reason to do this NOW before you are morbidly obese. Plus, I really have no excess skin to speak off. The most you can say is I"m a bit more jiggly than I may otherwise have been.

I dont generally suffer from heartburn but for the last 3 fills I had (havent had a fill now in over 9 months) I did have a bout of it for a week or two after, everytime I ate. It settled, so you may not be too filled, but if it continues I'd see your doctor.

How simple is that?. I dont eat pork chops becuase I just dont like them that much - they're so huge and tough and the big strip of fat on them, ugh. But that I could probably do - it sounds good.

Oh it gets worse! I went to a seminar last night as my surgeon asked me to speak at it. My DH was also attending as he wants to be banded. So we did both on the same night. As a "normal" weight person, I got some of the filthiest looks you could imagine for just being there - even in support of someone else, and my DH has a BMI of about 35 like I did at first so he was easily the least obese person there. Then when I was introduced, suprise surprise, suddenly everyone's face is open and friendly. Like I had gained acceptance now that they know that I used to be "one of them". Quite confronting really.

My port is directly underneath my large incision, but towards one end of it. It doesnt feel good to press on it, it doesnt hurt but its just one of those creepy weird things. And I just realised I can feel the first inch or so of TUBING as well before it disappears into my flesh. Ergh. Fills dont hurt. There's a slight needle prick but that's nothing. Normally with an injection that hurts - like a big fat penicillin shot in the bum, its like they're pushing an egg into your flesh, all the Fluid into your muscle, that's the bit that hurts. With your fills, when they push the saline in, it's going into your port, not your flesh, so you feel nothing. It would only hurt a bit if they miss and dig around for it, which has never happened to me. But needle phobia makes it unbearable for some people, I was nervous too.

Ah, goals! That's what's so great about running as a sport. It has inbuilt goals if you participate in fun runs. That's what kept me going in the early days. First a 4km. Then a 5km. Then a 7.5. Then a 10. End of march I'm doing a 14.2 and THEN in July I'm heading to the Gold Coast to do a half marathon. I doubt I'll go beyond a half, too old and crippled, lol, but those races really make running a sport that's easy to get into and stay with. Once you've been in one, they're SO much fun. If you can find similar challenges for any other exercise, then that's great, it really does help to keep you motivated.

I attended a seminar last night (my DH is thinking about banding now, and after I accompanied him to see the surgeon for the first time, the surgeon asked me if I would be the speaker). The advice they gave was that once banded your daily menu should look something like this: breakfast: a small bowl of wholegrain Cereal morning tea: fruit lunch: half a sandwich with Protein and salad afternoon tea: yogurt dinner: a palm sized piece of protein and a cup of steamed vegetables. The advice was that you should be able to handle SOME bread, in small quanities, Pasta and rice too. That eating meat was down to chewing properly. Of course we all know that sometimes in reality there's just foods you cant handle. One lady attending was American. She spoke up about protein first. The surgeon running the seminar said they've been doing lapbands here for over 13 years, they've NEVER seen any proof that protein is any more necessary than any other nutrients and that in fact high protein consumption is dangerous for bone health becuase doubling your protein doubles the excretion of Calcium from your body (which is why it can cause kidney stones). She said following the basic food pyramid, eating a wide variety is still the way to go. Now I know you guys get different advice and who knows what is REALLY right and wrong, but 13 years of successful banding in Australia on people who are NOT advised to follow that sort of diet, and who on the whole are statistically as successful as anywhere else has surely got to indicate that you can indeed eat real food and carbs and never drink one of those shakes and still lose weight!

I'm not sure you ever adjust. I'm having real trouble with it, I keep saying here (and elsewhere) that I just want to lose 5 more kgs. People react with "no, dont lose anymore, you dont need to" etc and I dont believe them. But I think the truth is that I really DONT need to lose anymore, my weight is perfectly healthy, I just cannot really SEE myself as I am. I cannot adjust to not having to be "on a diet" anymore, I have been trying to lose weight since I was 10 years old, even though most of that time I wasnt even more than a few kgs overweight. So even at the end of the journey, there's issues. I've even been panicking lately that I eat too much, yet, my weight has remained stable, so why the phuck am I afraid to eat when ALL I have to do is maintain. I dont have to diet. And yeah, I still have to come back OUT of the changing room because everything I've taken in is way too big.

When I say Protein, I dont mean 20 grams in a meal, but I cant get by on sugary Cereal like Corn Flakes. For breakfast this morning, I had a poached egg on a piece of wholegrain toast and a small glass of OJ. Yesterday I had oatmeal made with milk. I sprinkled some dried fruit and nut mix on top. I eat good organic bircher style muesli a lot for breakfast becuase it does contain a little protein, but mostly good, low GI carbs, and of course the milk or yogurt you add has protein. I'm not a fan of cooked breakfasts like bacon and eggs, too much saturated fat and cholesterol, yuck. I'm a carb eater though. I run a lot, I burn a lot of energy and I eat a lot for a bandster. As long as I avoid high GI sugary carbs I dont have a problem with managing my weight or with cravings. And I lost weight fine.

Find someway, somehow to exercise, no matter what it took. Its vital, absolutely vital in getting weight off but more importantly in keeping it off. I'd never sit down, that's a tactic I try to employ now. I might sit down here, but the rule is 5 minutes, then go and do something, something around the house usually. I no longer EVER spend hours sitting on my bum. Even at night in front of the TV, I get up and do stuff in the ads. And I'd just try to say right, 3 meals a day, that's ALL, and try to make them healthy ones. You cant just skive off cooking, that's a lazy, fat way to behave. Sorry, but it is. Cooking yourself healthy meals is one skill you absolutely cannot do without. My mum is 67, retired, plays golf 3 x a week, goes bike riding twice, is never ever home when you try to call her, has the fridge stocked with healthy food, she and dad cook together most nights, healthy habits make healthy people (even if not super skinny, mum mum is a touch overweight) and fat habits make fat people. Fat habits are not about just what you eat, its how you live all round. Especially if she's diabetic, she's old enough and adult enough to take responsibility for managing that and she should know that what she's doing is not beneficial to her diabetes. And once I'd made those changes, I'd accept that they take me wherever they take me. NO thoughts of normal BMI, low goal weights, etc etc. Because without WLS losing THAT much weight aint likely to happen.

I really need Protein AND carbs to keep me going - but good wholegrain low GI carbs, not sugary ones like you'd find in a processed bar. I could eat 3 of those things in a sitting, without a problem, the bulk of a grain food at breakfast fills me, and I add some protein for sticking power. If I eat JUST protein - like 2 eggs - I'm starving in an hour, and if I eat JUST carbs, I get cravings mid morning. It takes both. Same with lunch, a sandwich involving wholegrain bread, a protein and some salad is probably the best meal to keep me going. I cant eat a lot of it, probably 2/3 of a sandwich. Or I make it open with one slice of bread. I seem to be able to fit in a lot of volume and have ALWAYS been able to, but the types of food I choose are low calorie and keep me satisfied (for the most part, lol). Just protein foods, its such a small volume of food that yes, I would be hungry. Even if you added a piece of fruit to that protein bar it would help.

I'm so very glad our insurance works differently in Australia. My private health insurance covered the cost of my surgery, I paid my surgeon a once off $3,000 and now my aftercare and fills forever are bulk billed, which means the surgeon charges the minimum scheduled fee to Medicare and I pay absolutely nothing. I can go whenever I like. Otherwise, the band simply cannot be utilised properly. It's ridiculous that it would cost that much money to get back to your optimum fill level, just so unfair. I would never in a million years fill myself but I certainly cant blame you for thinking about it.

Ah Cookies. Me too Denise. I will never have a normal relationship with sugary carbs. I could live on them, quite happily. Unfortunately, they go down really easily. What I find helps me (and is this normal? Probably not!) is that every morning, I set out on the bench the 2 pieces of fruit, the carton of yogurt, the 4 bottles of Water, and the five different vegetables I am going to get through that day. The veges I can put aside in the fridge -- usually have some in a sandwich for lunch and several steamed for dinner. I make a pact with myself that the fruit, yogurt and water is to be eaten FIRST whenever I get picky. I usually find if I do that, I can control the cravings for cookies that strikes at 11 am. And contrary to my previous beliefs about water, I do indeed find chugging down half a litre of water if I feel like eating something really DOES quell the urge a lot of the time. If I have to play mind games like this with myself I doubt I could be called normal, but oh well, if it keeps me healthy I'm happy enough with it.

I taught myself to run on my treadmill. I very rarely run on it anymore (use it for circuit training though), but its a great way to start, a softer surface, safe, non embarrassing! I started out with a very very slow jog at 6.4kms (4mph), and a 4km distance, always on an incline of 1, 1.5 (to better simulate an outdoor run). I can now run on at about 6mph, but I tend to run outside now, have no idea of my speed, I just do it, lol. The treadmill is great becuase you can be exact with everything, your speed, the increments by which you increase distance etc.

Terry afterburn is where your metabolism is heightened after exercise, something that long moderate sessions of cardio (like we're told to do to burn fat) doesnt achieve. Slower cardio causes your body to burn a greater PERCENTAGE of fat for fuel but harder cardio burns more fat overall. Of course you have to start with what you can manage, but intervals in your cardio work, where you push your heart rate through the roof help to elevate you to that next level, and cause your body to have to burn more calories to recover when you've finished. Slow cardio like walking doesnt do that, your body just returns to normal once you stop. Weights and particularly circuit training, where you combine weights AND cardio are the best ways to raise your metabolism for hours. But dont worry about it. I truly believe all that scientific claptrap is irrelevant to a degree for us average Joe's. Anyone with half a brain can see that if an overweight person starts to eat less and do some cardio, she loses weight. Its only when you get to my stage, where you've lost down to a health weight (but want to lose just a few kgs more for fine tuning) and have been doing long runs for a couple of years taht you need to start thinking "right, how can I shake this up a bit". There's no point to me going out and running MORE to try to lose more weight, I already can run an hour at a time and my body has adapted well to it, can do it most efficiently for minimum calorie burn and can recover quickly. From here on it, I need to get tricky with it, AND I would also like to increase my aerobic fitness so I can do a half marathon. I need to do something different, shock my body to achieve that. For those of us part way through our journeys, eat less and move more doing something you'll like doing. The average person doing a normal amount of exercise is not going to waste away all their muscle doing cardio or fail to get benefits. It works.

Terry afterburn is where your metabolism is heightened after exercise, something that long moderate sessions of cardio (like we're told to do to burn fat) doesnt achieve. Slower cardio causes your body to burn a greater PERCENTAGE of fat for fuel but harder cardio burns more fat overall. Of course you have to start with what you can manage, but intervals in your cardio work, where you push your heart rate through the roof help to elevate you to that next level, and cause your body to have to burn more calories to recover when you've finished. Slow cardio like walking doesnt do that, your body just returns to normal once you stop. Weights and particularly circuit training, where you combine weights AND cardio are the best ways to raise your metabolism for hours. But dont worry about it. I truly believe all that scientific claptrap is irrelevant to a degree for us average Joe's. Anyone with half a brain can see that if an overweight person starts to eat less and do some cardio, she loses weight. Its only when you get to my stage, where you've lost down to a health weight (but want to lose just a few kgs more for fine tuning) and have been doing long runs for a couple of years taht you need to start thinking "right, how can I shake this up a bit". There's no point to me going out and running MORE to try to lose more weight, I already can run an hour at a time and my body has adapted well to it, can do it most efficiently for minimum calorie burn and can recover quickly. From here on it, I need to get tricky with it, AND I would also like to increase my aerobic fitness so I can do a half marathon. I need to do something different, shock my body to achieve that. For those of us part way through our journeys, eat less and move more doing something you'll like doing. The average person doing a normal amount of exercise is not going to waste away all their muscle doing cardio or fail to get benefits. It works.